Diamond anniversary: Maddiston couple celebrate 60 years of marriage

Margaret and Alex Anderson have already held the celebration of their special day and when they arrived for what they thought was a lunch with immediate family at the Boardwalk restaurant in Falkirk earlier this month they were overjoyed to see members of their original wedding party also present. Margaret said: “I couldn’t believe it when I walked in and four of my bridesmaids were there. It was a wonderful surprise.”

The couple have spent most of their lives living in the Braes area, with only a brief spell in Falkirk.

Margaret Clydesdale grew up in Rainhill, while Alex lived with his family in Southvale. They met through attending the Bethesda Hall church in Maddiston and after a two year courtship were married there by pastor James Black on December 22, 1962.

Like so many couples of their generation their first year of married life was spent living with family, in this case Margaret’s mum but they eventually got their own home in Park Terrace, Brightons. At that time Margaret worked in the office of one of the area’s main employers, haulage company Smith of Maddiston, while Alex spent his working life as a milkman.

It was when he got a job with the dairy based in Slamannan Road, Falkirk, that the couple moved to live there as a tied house went with the job. But Margaret says they didn’t like living out of the Braes and were happy when the opportunity came to move back to Maddiston, now living in the village’s Parkhall Drive.

Alex, 84, worked for several dairy companies, including Brown Ferguson and Wiseman, before deciding to work for himself. And it was a real family business as Margaret, 80, used to help out by going round to collect the money from customers for their daily delivery of milk to the doorstep.

Their marriage was blessed with the arrival of four children – Lesley, Sandy, Graham and Diane, and they now also have seven grandsons and one granddaughter who the couple say bring them great joy.

Margaret had spent some time working in Youngs store in Falkirk and when the children were a bit older she returned there for a while, serving customers in the shop's well-known china department.

She said her hobbies were to knit, sew and read with the first two coming in particularly handy when the children were small.

Margaret said: “I didn’t drive until after our third child was born but every Saturday, despite him working long hours all week, Alex would take us all out for the day. We spent many happy times on those day trips.”

Asked the secret of their marriage on the eve of their diamond anniversary, Margaret didn't hesitate to respond: “We’ve always been churchgoers and had God in our lives.”

She added that they had a lifetime of happy memories to look back on and planned to spend the day quietly reflecting on their time together.