A FORMER builder and Brown Owl from Botley are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary today.

Peter Ballard, 80 who ran his own building business, PB services, and Margaret (nee Phipps), 80, who served 35 years as brown owl for the second Botley Brownie pack, are celebrating with family today, the day after Mrs Ballard’s 80th birthday.

The couple met as teenagers in the early 1950s when their friends would hang out at the Burtons Milk Bar.

Mr Ballad said: “I first met her when she was looking in a shop window and I just went up to her and said hello.

“Then I took her into the Milk Bar and we sat down in there and had a milkshake.”

They enjoyed dates at the Oxford Speedway and the cinema together before getting engaged when Mrs Ballard was 18, in 1953.

The couple married on June 11, 1955 at St Nicholas Church in Mrs Ballard’s home parish of Marston, the day after she turned 20.

Mr Ballard did his National Service then returned to work at Pressed Steel in Cowley for several years until setting up his own building business, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

Mrs Ballard volunteered to support the church in Marston and then led the Brownie pack.

In their spare time the couple took Mr Ballard’s steam engine to rallies around the country. They have enjoyed many holidays and have raised two children, Stuart Ballard, 50 and Jacqui Penfold, 52.

They now have four grandchildren, one great grandchild and another one on the way.

Of the secret to a long and happy marriage Mr Ballard said: “If you have an argument you should talk it through.

“You should never go to bed on an argument. It’s worked for us so it must be alright.”

He said allowing each other to enjoy their own hobbies but always coming back together at the end of the day was also a secret of the couple’s success. Their daughter Mrs Penfold said: “I’m very proud of them. They were both very independent until they retired and they’ve always done what they wanted to do as individuals but they have done lots of other things together and they are always back together again in the evenings.”

Mr and Mrs Ballard still live in the Botley home in Sycamore Road they have shared for more than 50 years.