Camelon's Peter and Marie Ledwidge celebrate 60 years of marriage

Like so many couples of their age, Peter Ledwidge met Marie McAleenan at Doak’s ballroom in Meadow Street. The mutual attraction saw them quickly become a couple followed by wedding bells on February 1, 1964.

Peter, who had grown up in High Bonnybridge where he lived with his mum Rebecca after his dad died when he was only five, worked at Dougall’s brickworks, while Marie, from Camelon, was employed by the Co-op in the Bog Road area of Falkirk.

Their wedding ceremony was one of the first to take place in St Mary’s of the Angels in Camelon and was followed by a reception in the Plough Hotel.

The Falkirk Herald played its part with photographer Jim McElroy capturing the newlyweds and their relatives on their special day.

The couple made a room and kitchen in High Bonnybridge their first home, but Peter, now 84, admits that his new wife didn’t settle there so they did a swap with his friend’s sister who had a house in Falkirk’s Mary Street.

They later moved to Hayfield before buying a house in Colonsay Avenue, Polmont.

Peter spent 26 years at the brickworks but when it was closing down he found another job with Hewlett Packard in South Queensferry, and around the same time the couple decided to move to Bo’ness.

A few years later when the new community in Hallglen was being built they were on the move again, before finally arriving at their present home in Elizabeth Crescent, Camelon four years ago.

After almost five years with Hewlett Packard, Peter moved again to BXL in Grangemouth before joining Falkirk Council as a school janitor working in both St Andrew’s and Easter Carmuirs Primary Schools.

His final job before retirement was as manager of the Indoor Bowling Centre in Cumbernauld which allowed him to mix work with pleasure as the couple were both keen lawn bowlers and members of Callendar Miner’s Welfare club in Glen Village for many years.

Marie, now 81, was the ladies’ champion on eight occasions, while Peter was a Scottish bowling umpire and in 1986 officiated at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

The couple have been blessed with six children – Anne-Marie, Peter, Paul, Martin, Kevin and Gary, as well as 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren with another on the way.

Marie was kept busy raising her family but worked for a time in Mathieson’s shop in Camelon Main Street.

However, she was a talented singer and was much in demand as a cabaret singer around central Scotland for many years.

It also used to stand the family in good stead when they would spend their annual holidays at camp and caravan sites in England. Nine years in a row Marie won a talent competition with the prize another holiday for everyone in September.

One trip to Skegness saw them all come away as winners in various competitions, an achievement featured at the time in the Falkirk Herald.

Asked the secret to a long and happy marriage, Peter replied: “Doing what I’m told and knowing who the boss is.”

The Ledwidges will celebrate their diamond day with a family meal at Cafe Corvina in Falkirk.