14286/2GAZETTE & HERALD: KEN and Kath Fleming celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on Saturday, 50 years after honeymooning on a rainy campsite in Weston- super-Mare.

But the sun is still shining brightly in their relationship.

"There is no secret," Mr Fleming, 75, said. "We just buckle together. She has her way and I have mine."

The couple were joined by their two children, Mervyn, 49, and daughter Heather Daines, 46, their five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and 20 other guests at the celebration at their home in Williams Grove, Corsham.

They enjoyed a whirlwind romance. They first met in 1953, married a year later and christened their son a year after that.

"We met on a coach going to a farmworkers' union dinner." Mrs Fleming said. "My brother knew him and we got talking.

"We didn't end up sitting next to each other on the coach journey home or having a dance. We were both out with our parents and it was a bit different in those days."

Instead they arranged a date for the following week. They married at Long Newton Church, between Tetbury and Malmesbury.

Mrs Fleming said: "He asked my dad if he could marry me. He didn't propose. I didn't even get a ring. But he's made up for it over the years.

"I got on my bike on the morning of my wedding and cycled a mile and a half to the hairdressers in town. Then back home again, with a scarf wrapped around it. You would not get youngsters doing that these days."

The newlyweds refused to let the typical English weather put a damper on their honeymoon and spent a week in a caravan.

Mrs Fleming said: "It rained every day so we bought a pair of wellies each. The camp was underwater."

The couple ran the Vine Tree at Norton for four years and The Bell in Yatton Keynell for five years.

"It was very good working together," Mrs Fleming said.

Mrs Fleming had a back operation in 1969, and has had two triple bypasses and two angioplasty operations over the years and she suffered kidney cancer in 1995, leaving her with just one kidney, but in full recovery.

"He's always been there for me," Mrs Fleming said.

Mr Fleming said: "You just get on and cope.

"The first time I saw Kath I liked the look of her. We've now got everything we could wish for."