By Margaret Crosby

Published at 15:40, Wednesday, 10 June 2009

SHE had missed the last bus after dancing the night away at the Empress Ballroom. He had gallantly offered to walk her home. And the rest, as they say, is history; 50 years of history to be precise as that young couple are now celebrating their golden wedding anniversary.

golden couple: Jean and Jimmy Hughes recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. They are pictured, above, on their wedding day in Whitehaven in 1959.

After their initial meeting, Jimmy Hughes and his new girlfriend, Jean Allan, became inseparable, the start of a romance that has lasted half a century.

On Saturday, June 6, the couple celebrated their anniversary, marking the day 50 years ago that they each said ‘I do’ when they were married by Father Vincent Fogarty OSB at St Begh’s RC Church in Whitehaven in 1959. It was a love of dancing that had brought Jimmy and Jean together, and it’s an interest that has been a mainstay of their life ever since. Yes, those Empress Rhythm Aces have much to answer for! Jean recalls it was a slow foxtrot playing when Jimmy first asked her to dance and these days the couple still keep in step by regularly attending the weekly dance nights held at the Kells Royal British Legion club, near to where they live at College View, Whitehaven.

The club, where Jimmy is standard bearer and has served with the committee for 25 years, was also the venue for a party night for more than 100 of the Hughes’s family and friends on Friday.

After three years courting (and out dancing nearly every night of the week), Jean and Jimmy decided to get wed, but their chosen June date (also the D-Day anniversary) did not live up to weather expectations as it was blowing a gale from the Irish Sea and there was even a flurry of snow! Jean's beautiful gown had been made by a local dressmaker from Sekers brocade and her twin sisters, Norma and Barbara, and sister-in-law, Maureen, were bridesmaids.

Jimmy’s parents hailed from Ireland and it was off to Kilarney for a honeymoon week that the new Mr and Mrs Hughes went. It was the start of a real love affair with the Emerald Isle and the couple have visited for holidays many times since. There is shamrock growing in their garden and their anniversary sees them heading off again to that honeymoon destination, though it will no doubt cost a bit more than the ‘7guineas for 7days’ bill that Jimmy had footed in 1959!

After marriage the Hughes went to live with Jean’s mother and family at Hilltop Road, Kells. Mrs Hannah Allan had been left widowed when the family suffered a triple loss of life in the William Pit disaster of 1947 and Jean had left school early to help out at home. Her father, Harry, had been killed leaving Jean and her brother, John, fatherless and his twin girls still unborn.

By the time she was 17 Jean had embarked on the outside world of work, joining TS Durham’s firm of mining engineers who were based at Somerset House. Jean had studied shorthand and typing at night classes. She worked at Somerset House until it closed in 1970, when Jean went to The Whitehaven News where she was editor’s secretary to the late Walter Thomson, a job she greatly enjoyed.

“There was a heavy workload, everything seemed to get shovelled on to my desk, but it was a great place to work and I enjoyed it,’’ says Jean, who was a highly valued and popular member of the news team and stayed with the paper until her retirement.

Jimmy meanwhile had been working on the busy Whitehaven docks for a firm of stevedores and ship’s chandlers, J B Moffatt, but after the coal industry went and the Marchon imports ceased, the docks were closed in 1992, and Jimmy, after 25 years employed there, was left out of work. He got a job with Wm Low supermarket at north shore, later to become Tescos, and after eight years he too retired. As a young man Jimmy had been in Surrey and Ireland doing his National Service with the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Retirement has given the Hughes more time for dancing and for other interests, such as travelling abroad; so far a trip to Canada and cruise holidays have been highlights. Jimmy is also known for his good singing voice and he is also a long-term supporter of his local team, closely following the fortunes of Whitehaven RL.

The Hughes have a daughter, Anne, married to Paul Hillon and two grandchildren, Claire, 21, and Dominic, 17. They are the first in their family, on both sides, to celebrate a golden wedding.

It’s quite an achievement and their recipe for a long and happy marriage is a simple one – “trust and friendship, and being open and honest with each other’’. They look at each other and nod in agreement.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk