THE Teesdale air and keeping active are the secrets one couple attribute their 60 years of marriage.
Gerry and Brenda Thwaites, of Cotherstone, are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary quietly with their family this week.
The couple are originally from what is now Cumbria.
Mr Thwaites said: “I am from Bowness-on-Windermere and Brenda is from Hawkshead. When we were courting it was a quite a drive around the lake – it would have been as quick to swim.”
He added: “We got together at a dance in Bowness. We went to a lot of dances back then. Many of the dances were fundraisers for things like the Ambleside Sports Queen and the Coniston foxhounds who hunt on foot.”
Following an 18-month courtship Mr Thwaites, then a farm worker, and Mrs Thwaites, a bookkeeper, married on May 16, 1959, at St Michael and All Angels Church, in Hawkshead.
Mrs Thwaites said: “When we first got married we rented a small flat in Windermere but the farmer, who Gerry was working for at the time, let us use the front of his farmhouse.”
Although farming is close to Mr Thwaites’ heart, he had also wanted to join the police service. When he asked about staying close to where they lived in Cumbria he was told he would have to move out to Bridlington, something he
wasn’t keen on doing.
Mr Thwaites added: “I had always said if at all possible I would like a country beat. When the inspector in Bridlington called me in I thought I was in trouble. He said, ‘Thwaites, have you ever heard of Cotherstone?'”
On his next day off, the couple found themselves looking around the police house that was to become their future home. Mr Thwaites said: “It was February 1970, there was a blizzard blowing and the house was freezing.”
They moved into the dale in May and say they have never regretted a minute. In 1980 they purchased the police house. They built their current house in the garden and moved in 1993. They sold the former home around the same time Mr Thwaites retired from the police force.
Mrs Thwaites, a former Cotherstone parish clerk, worked in Barnard Castle as an audit clerk for accountants. Mr and Mrs Thwaites are still active. Mrs Thwaites is an accomplished watercolour artist, a collector of clowns and is treasurer of the Teesdale branch of Cancer Research UK, the group that hit the headlines last year for raising £1million towards beating cancer.
Mr Thwaites has recently taken retirement for the second time – this time from Doe Park, where he has, among other things, been a dry stone waller. Mr Thwaites said: “I started dry stone walling when I was farming around Windermere, and then I carried on during my days off in the police.”
Mr Thwaites is also a keen amateur singer. The couple still enjoy travel, listing Benidorm, river cruises, Alaska, Canada and Hong Kong among their favourites.
Asked for the secret to a long marriage, Mrs Thwaites replied: “We still argue, you know.” Mr Thwaites added “No we don’t – it’s more like bickering now. I just turn my hearing aid down and pretend to listen.”
They both laughed
Mr and Mrs Thwaites have come to terms with the death of their son, Kevin. Their other son, Mark, and three grandchildren will be helping with celebrations.
Mrs Thwaites said: “We are very proud of them all.”
