SOUTH Craven couple Leonard and Betty Hawkins will be celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary this weekend with a family party, at the White Lion, at Kildwick.

Married in 1947 at Kildwick Church, the couple met four years earlier while working at Redmans Grocers, in Skipton.

Betty, who was 16 at the time, joked: "I had my eye on him for a long time before I got anywhere."

Shortly after they got together, Leonard was sent to Austria to train at the Mountain Warfare School.

He arranged to marry Betty on his first home leave.

Just days before the wedding, Leonard left the snow and freezing temperatures of Austria to find Yorkshire in the grips of a harsh winter.

"The White Lion that year was like an ice cube, covered in ice," he said.

The snow was so deep that Betty recalled wondering if the bridegroom would even make it back in time for the wedding.

She said: "Cononley station was dark when the train arrived and then I heard someone whistling Pablo the Dreamer. Well then I knew it was him because he would always whistle that song."

After being demobbed, Leonard went to work on the railways before taking a job with Rolls-Royce, where he worked on the prototype turbine blades for the RB211 jet engine.

The couple have lived in Farnhill for more than 40 years and have always played an active part in the community.

Leonard was a member of the parish council and helped to build the village hall, while his wife - who used to work at Stells Mill, in Cononley - has helped to raise a lot of money for the community. She has been active in the Women's Institute and Mothers' Union, as well as assisting at the local Sunday school.

She still attends Kildwick church where the couple was married.

The couple has two sons and a daughter, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Leonard told the Herald: "You know when you have met Miss Right. All of a sudden I knew she was the one I wanted."

And Betty echoed the sentiment, saying: "I think I have been very lucky."