Couple who are like “Batman and Robin” celebrate 70th wedding anniversary

Thomas and Florence Sampson are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary. This picture was taken close to their wedding day. Picture: Ian Burt (Image: Archant)

Thomas and Florence Sampson first met as teenagers in 1943 while both members of a hiking club based in Oldham near Manchester.

They married three years later at St Paul's Methodist Church, Shaw, before moving to Norfolk in the mid 1970s.

And was at their home in Reymerston, south of Dereham, that the couple, who are both in their 90s, marked the special occasion yesterday.

Thomas, 91, said: 'We met at a hiking club and at the time we were just a gang of friends more or less. Then one day Florence decided to take me home to her parents' house and that were it.

'She always worked well with me, because I was the dominant one and she would always help out. She would never argue. I suppose we are bit like Batman and Robin.'

Thomas worked as an engineer during the early stages of their marriage, while Florence worked in a cotton mill.

But it was in the 1950s that they decided to team up and start working together, initially running two milk rounds covering Rochdale and Oldham.

After a stint in Llandudno as hoteliers, they then moved to East Anglia to run a bed and breakfast in Mildenhall, Suffolk.

The couple, who have no children, now live in a house south of Dereham where they spend their days together.

Thomas said: 'We might go shopping together still, although it is very tiring now as Florence can't walk very fast.'

Florence, 90, added: 'And he will grumble at me and walk on ahead, but then has to wait for me to catch up.'

Speaking about what has kept their relationship so strong over the years, Florence put it down to hard work and never fighting.

But Thomas said: 'The trick is to let the wife have it all her own way.'