A SWEET couple who met at a sugar factory celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on December 21.

Bob and Margaret Pressey both worked at the Tate & Lyle sugar factory, in Silvertown, London, when they were set up by Margaret’s manager.

The Willow Road, Tadley, couple met at the Odeon, in Woolwich and it was love at first sight.

Margaret, 79, said: “I loved him to bits as soon as I saw him.”

The pair got engaged in July 1956 and married on December 21, 1957, at Shoreditch Church - home of the ‘bells of Shoreditch’ alluded to in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons.

Bob, 82, said: “It was a cold winter’s day and there was snow on the ground. It snowed like mad that day.”

The couple, who have four children, lived in Shoreditch before moving to Tadley in 1964, buying a home in Stephens Road for the princely sum of £3,300. The pair have lived in Tadley or Baughurst ever since.

After moving Bob, began working at Job’s Dairy, on the site of what is now Wheelgame, in Mulfords Hill.

Margaret said: “We had one daughter before that so I said all my children after that were the milkman’s!”

Bob went on to work for Lansing Bagnall and Courage brewery, while Margaret worked for, among others, Kensitas and AWE.

The couple now have 10 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a dog called Toffee.

On the secret to a long and happy marriage, Bob said: “You get people saying they’ve been married for so many years and that they’ve never had an argument - that’s just not true. You argue, but you make up as you love each other.”

Margaret, who has appeared in The Gazette before when The Queen came to AWE, added: “We have had a couple of ding dongs but you get over those.

“I think the secret is you get over little rows as you know what is important.”