Remembering a 1951 wedding

Fifty seven years ago on the 4th August 1951 my parents were married at Christ church Cinder hill Nottingham sadly my mum isn't here to celebrate as she passed away 3 and 1/2 years ago.

Christ church Cinder Hill Nottingham

I want to take this opportunity to blog about their meeting and subsequent wedding as a memento for my children so they will know some of their family history.

They met in 1949 when my mum, who worked at Nottingham lace was on a works outing- a day trip to Southampton.

My dad was also there, from Cornwall but, stationed at the army barracks. He was out in the town with some mates. My mum and her workmates were apparently whistling and shouting at the men in their uniforms! (being nice, quiet Nottingham girls) Anyway they started talking and kept in touch with each other. Six weeks later my dad was posted to Egypt but he went up to Nottingham the weekend before to see her. For the year that he was away my mum wrote to him every week and he wrote back when he could.

A year later in 1950 my dad was demobbed and arrived home by ship to Liverpool docks. To his great surprise my mum was there waiting for him and he went back to Nottingham with her for a week and they got engaged. He then went back to Cornwall to continue his demob.

And then as I said they got married on August 4th 1951 in Nottingham with 5 bridesmaids, 2 of her sisters and 3 of his, the best man was my dad's identical twin brother.

My mum wore a gown of white cloque with an embroidered veil and carried a bouquet of deep red roses. After the ceremony they honeymooned in Mevagissey. They then spent their married lives living in Cornwall and had 6 children one of whom died within hours of birth, out of the surviving 5 there is only one girl, me! They also had 12 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. Although most of their married lives was spent running their own business, which stopped them from having many holidays apart from occasional trips to Nottingham to see the relatives, they certainly made up for it in latter years by having many holidays visiting many countries around the world. They also had parties to celebrate their 25th and 50th wedding anniversaries.