Terry and Margaret Saunders have been through three recessions, had two children and a lot of laughter on the way to their 60th wedding anniversary.

Originally from south east London, the couple moved to Aylesford in 1960 - two years after their marriage in 1958

They still live in the same house in Orchard Avenue and opened their second home, Sandy’s Hardware in Kestrel Road, Lordswood, in April 1976.

Margaret told the Messenger: “He first saw me in a park on the swings. I was still at school then.

"He was riding around on his bike, but we didn’t meet properly until a community dance in November 1954.

“We mutually decided to get married a few years later. It wasn’t down on one knee or anything like that.

"But we did engrave our initials on to a tree in Avery Hill Park. It’s probably still there.”

Despite Margaret and Terry – known by many as Sandy – being less than a year from their 80th birthdays, the couple still help their son Andy in the shop and are familiar faces to the locals.

Margaret continued: “Andy runs the shop, Terry does a handy man service and I’m here three days a week being a nuisance. It’s not been easy at times. We have had three recessions and the last one was really tough. We’ve watched our customers grow up, they’re more like friends to us.”

Terry was an engineer in Strood but looked for a shop in the Towns after he was made redundant.

He said: “I used the redundancy money to buy the shop. It was only ever going to be DIY. We looked at a few places but this one was our favourite. It was much quieter round here then, it’s built up a lot over the last 40 years.

“Andy used to work here part time on a Saturday while he was at school and now we own it together.

“We haven’t done anything special, marriage is about give and take and having a good sense of humour. The family make us happy too.”

Their youngest son Colin lives in Oxfordshire with his wife Amanda.

They also have grandchildren Simon and Nick and great-grand children Tye, Morgan, Alex and Thomas.