They said it would never last but when Derbyshire lass Betty married her Yorkshire-man husband Tom it was love that won the day for the couple now living in Falmouth.

Tom and Betty Ellis, from Conway Road, celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with a party at the Falmouth Beach Resort Hotel on Sunday (January 14), after spending the actual day on holiday in Fuerteventura on the Canary Islands.

Betty, 78, said: "I married a Yorkshire-man and everybody said it wouldn't last. 'A Derbyshire lass marrying a Yorkshire-man?' But we've been very, very lucky. We've had our ups and downs, the same as anybody. But we have all worked together."

The couple met when Betty was working as a barmaid and Tom had just been demobbed from the Royal Navy.

"I told him I was 18, but actually I was 17. He didn't see me for two weeks - but then he came back," laughed Betty.

They married at Killamarsh Church in Derbyshire on December 21, 1946. The couple initially lived with Tom's parents in Swallownest, Yorkshire, where Betty had their first child, Roger, 11 months after they married.

Two and a half years later the couple moved to a council house, where their second son, Norman, was born. During this time Tom worked as a manager for the Co Op, but when Betty announced she was pregnant with their third child, Elizabeth, Tom decided it was time to look for a job with a higher salary.

Despite his father vowing never to let him work down the mines - having worked there himself all his life - Tom took up a job as a coal-miner.

"I waited until my mum and dad went on holiday for two weeks. I dared not do it when my father was there!" explained Tom.

He had been working in the mines fore three years when he met a friend, Charlie Barker, who was living with his wife Phyllis at Maen Valley in Falmouth.

Together, the two men looked for work in Falmouth, with Betty and the children joining Tom a month later. Tom and Charlie managed to get a job creating the Queen Elizabeth Dry Dock at Castle Drive, after sneaking into the docks dressed in overalls to ask for a job.

After the dock was completed Tom worked for a building company before becoming an able seaman at Falmouth's submarine pier, where the National Maritime Museum building now sits. He passed exams to become a boswain and a mate, before moving to Devonport for seven years, with his family living in Plympton.

The family then returned to Falmouth, where Tom was in charge of three boats conducting torpedo trials at Coastline Wharf.

Meanwhile, the family were living in a static caravan at Pennance Trailer park, where Betty worked as a cleaner and also part-time at the Swanpool Beach Cafe. In 1961 Betty had the couple's fourth child, Sally, who was born in the caravan.

The couple now have six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren with another one on the way. To celebrate their 60 years of marriage, their daughter Elizabeth and her husband organised a holiday to Fuerteventura, where their grandson Tom lives.

Back at home, Tom enjoys playing the mouth organ and making rugs, while Betty has always enjoyed knitting - particularly dolls for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Betty concluded: "We're just thankful for good friends and a lovely family. We just stick by each other."