On behalf of the village, the website team would like to offer many congratulations to villagers, John and Lesley Taylor, on the occasion of their Diamond Wedding. A very happy anniversary to them both.

Also sending congratulations were the King & Queen, who sent the couple a diamond wedding card. It apparently came as a complete and lovely surprise, arranged by John & Lesley's family. "It makes it all seem so very real", remarked Lesley. "I can't really believe we are celebrating 60 years".

John & Lesley were married at St. John's Church on Easter Monday, April 19th, 1965 when Cliff Richard was at Number One with “The Minute You're Gone” and “The Sound of Music” topped the box office. They are celebrating their 60 years together with an afternoon tea party for 40 family and friends in the Methodist Schoolroom on Easter Saturday, having lived all of their married life in the village and in the same house on Hungate.

According to Lesley on the day they got married, the weather threw everything it could think of at them-rain, snow, wind and finally sun. Perhaps a metaphor that could be applied to any long-standing marriage. “We have been really, really lucky and very happy. We have mended and made-do and what a lovely 60 years it has been”, said Lesley, as John agreed every step of the way.

They bought their house for £1,950, old fashionably internally decorated in dark green and brown, after spotting a tiny sign in the window saying it was For Sale. In a “bit of a state” when they bought it, over the years they have embarked on many improvements, big and small, and had fun doing so, John doing much of the work himself. His woodworking hobby can be seen in many of the pieces of furniture in the living room and the corner cupboard, pictured above, was crafted by John out of a play pen base. Live somewhere else, no thank you they say.

Lesley moved to the village when she was seven with her mother, step-father, 2 brothers and 2 sisters, attending the village school. John lived on the family farm in Burton Leonard and they met when John came to work at Melrose Farm in Bishop Monkton. John quickly got over the fact that Lesley says she first noticed his rather smart red motor bike and that was what initially attracted her. The rest, as they say, is history.

Born into a farming family in Burton Leonard where his brother still farms and from where the youngest of the couple's three sons, Ian, carries out his egg business today, John worked for 30 years on local farms before changing direction and becoming self-employed working in the village as a tradesman doing all those “jobs around the house and garden and loving it dearly”, says John. Their middle son, Richard, who lives in the village, does more or less the same job today.

The couple's eldest son, Nicholas, lives in Staveley and works as a gamekeeper.

Lesley worked as a lunch time supervisor at the school, helped families run their homes and, before her marriage, was nanny to a couple with three children who lived in the village, spending summer holidays with them in Ryedale.

John served on the Parish Council for about 12 years and was involved in the Produce Show. Lesley formed the Stitchers Group, initially to make kneelers for the church but which is still going strong, meeting monthly. She is also a member of the village's long established Ladies Group, which has now been in existence for over 25 years.

They both feel that the village has changed massively, having doubled in size with many of the farms disappearing. It is now they say, “big enough” and although the infrastructure, can, in their opinion, in the main, still cope, it will struggle if there is any more building. They are concerned about the issue of parking. And they will certainly know how it has changed-many of the magnificent towering trees around the village today, were mere saplings when John was "nobbut a lad” and just perfect for climbing.

The couple have three sons, 4 grandchildren, a great granddaughter, Ivy, and a great grandson on the way, all of whom live locally. They are, they say, “extremely fortunate” to have their family all around them.