Marriage has been a rollercoaster ride for golden wedding couple Tony and Margaret Coleman – quite literally.

The couple, of Hillworth Road, Devizes, love visiting theme parks, heading off to Thorpe Park twice in the last month alone.

Mrs Coleman said: “What gives us a buzz – and you’ll think us mad – but we love the rollers.”

In fact, she only learnt to swim at the age of 50 so that she would be able to go on the water rides.

They like to get there early and when the children are at school and are often the first people on a ride. Mrs Coleman said: “Nobody in the queue is anywhere near our age. They must think we’re mad.”

The Colemans met while working at Hinchley Engineering in Pans Lane where he was an apprentice in the laboratory and she worked on the inspection line.

Mr Coleman, who was at Hinchley’s for 49 ‘very happy years’, said it was five years before he plucked up the courage to pop the question, as they were saving to buy a house on his £12.50 a week wage.

When the proposal finally came, it was in old-fashioned, romantic style on a seat down by Nursteed Pond, which the couple still pass on their walks together.

Their Salvation Army wedding took place in the Methodist church on Long Street on June 3 but, because the Salvation Army hall was unavailable, the reception was held in St Joseph’s Catholic School hall. Mrs Coleman joked: “I always feel half Catholic.”

They also love walking, a pastime that was to take them a lot further afield than Wiltshire once their two children, Mark, 41, and Heather, 45, left home.

Their travels span the globe, from trekking the Inca trail of South America to climbing to base camp of Mount Everest.

They will celebrate their golden anniversary more sedately, however, with box seats for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.