Four generations at Rasen couple's diamond day

Four generations of one family gathered together to celebrate a Market Rasen couple's diamond wedding anniversary.
The Marshall family celebrated the diamond couple's 60 years of marriage EMN-160308-150827001The Marshall family celebrated the diamond couple's 60 years of marriage EMN-160308-150827001
The Marshall family celebrated the diamond couple's 60 years of marriage EMN-160308-150827001

Roy and Linda Marshall of Walesby Road marked 60 years of marriage with a family meal at Tealby’s Kings Head.

And there was a very special person attending the event - the couple’s first great-grandchild Oliver.

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“It really doesn’t seem like 60 years, it has gone so quick,” said Linda.

“We have been very fortunate; we have a lovely family.”

Linda was just 15 when she met Roy.

She would often visit her school friend Ann Tasker in Rasen and it was while at a dance in the town’s Corn Exchange, now Perkins George Mawer, the couple first spoke.

“We hit it off straight away,”said Linda.

They were married at Owmby by Spital church on July 28, 1956, when Linda was 16 and Roy was 20.

The couple set up home in Market Rasen with their first house in Jameson bridge Street costing them £50 down and £1 a week for a year.

Roy is a Market Rasen boy born and bred.

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His grandfather was the foreman of the roads in Market Rasen, while his late brother Jack is the ‘J’ in J Marshall funeral directors.

His parents were also in business in the town and Elizabeth Gardens is named after Roy’s mother.

Having started as an apprentice carpenter, Roy soon followed the family into business, opening the town’s first self service grocery store in Market Rasen - in Willingham Road.

He then went on to form the Marshall and Hall farm feed business.

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Meanwhile, Linda was kept busy at home, with five children - Teresa, Stephanie, Vicky, Joanne and Andrew.

The couple now also has seven grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and, of course, one great-grandchild.

“The only time we have been apart is when I did my National Service in the RAF - and that gave me the travel bug,” said Roy, who with Linda has enjoyed many holidays over the years, from New Zealand to North Yorkshire and continues to do so.

And when asked the secret of this long and happy marriage, Roy had just two words: “Mutual respect.”