WHEN Les Preston went on his first date with Sylvia Hayes the young couple watched a horror movie called The Clutching Hand.

But the spooky scenes they witnessed didn't put them off and on Thursday they celebrated 60 happy years of married life together.

Mr Preston met Miss Hayes in 1952 when he moved to Great Milton village near Thame.

The day he moved in the couple went to the pictures and after that they never looked back.

The couple married at St Mary's Church in Great Milton on March 30, 1957, and celebrated the landmark anniversary at their Coombe Farm home with a party for family and friends.

There was also a celebration at The Coach and Horses pub in Chiselhampton on Saturday.

Mr Preston, who was born in Thame, said: "I met Sylvia on the day I moved into the village and we went to the cinema that night.

"In those days there was a mobile cinema with the screen on top of the van and the film was called The Clutching Hand.

"I don't remember us being scared – maybe we weren't watching much of the film."

After they were married the couple lived at Chilworth Farm, Great Milton, and son Alan, 55, was born in 1961.

Their daughter Bridget, 50, was born in 1966 and the Prestons have three grandchildren, Lucy, 18, and Katie and Ben, both 16.

After the couple married Mr Preston worked as a dairy stockman at Chilworth Farm and then combined a career as a lorry driver for a timber company with breeding pedigree Welsh black cattle at Coombe Farm, where he and his wife moved to in 1972.

He bred the cattle for about 40 years from 1973 and also ran a caravan park at Coombe Farm from 1983.

Mr Preston first got a taste for working with cattle when he left school at 14 to milk Ayrshire cows at Chilworth Farm.

He said: "After I started breeding cattle I did a lot of showing cattle and I used to judge cattle across the country,

"I was very proud to be president of the Welsh Black Cattle Society from 2001 to 2002.

"It was a great honour for me as I was only the second English president in 100 years."

For a brief spell in 1970 Mr Preston and his wife moved to Rhayader in mid-Wales to look after 200 pedigree Welsh black cattle before returning to Great Milton.

Although Mr Preston no longer breeds pedigree cattle, he keeps two 'old stagers', a 17-year-old cow and her daughter called Coombe Susie and Coombe Tiny.

During the 1990s Mr Preston was vice-chairman of Great Milton parish council and during his time on the council he welcomed the introduction of some affordable housing to the village.

When asked the secret of a successful marriage Mr Preston said: "We share everything and we rarely go out separately.

"I have been getting up at 6am every morning to make the tea for 60 years and I take the cups back to bed and then we watch the news."

Mrs Preston said: "There has to be a lot of give and take – I'm not saying there has never been a cross word but we have jollied along."