TWO childhood sweethearts celebrate their golden wedding anniversary today, surrounded by family and friends.

John and Barbara Kinchin, from Marcham, are holding a party tonight to celebrate.

The couple met when growing up around the village in the 1950s.

Mr Kinchin, 72, said: “We first met when Barbara was 12 and I was 15, but didn’t start going out for a little while.

“We went on a couple of dates, but I started writing to her when I was sent to Cyprus for my National Service.

“Once I got out in 1959, we met up again at a dance in Abingdon and the rest is history.”

The couple were married at a small ceremony in Abingdon in October 1960, before taking their honeymoon in Bourne-mouth.

Mrs Kinchin said: “I passed my driving test just a few days before the wedding so we could drive there.”

The couple went on to have two children, Tony, 43, and Malcolm, 45.

They lived all around Oxfordshire and spent five years living in Spain, before returning because of ill health.

They have now been living in Marcham for four years and said they were “happier than ever”.

Mr Kinchin said: “I don’t know what the secret to a long marriage is, everybody has their ups and downs.

“It is just about understanding each other and trying to work things out as much as you can.”

Mrs Kinchin said: “I think you have to work at it and not give up. It is just talking things through and sorting problems out.

“Fifty years is a long time, but we’ve had more ups than downs and he has always been very supportive to me.”

The party will be held tonight at Abingdon Football Club, where they will be joined by their four grandchildren, Gemma, Matthew, James and Daniel.

Mr and Mrs Kinchin requested that they receive no presents, but said wellwishers could make donations to Cancer Research.