When they said their vows in a village church in Kent back in 1956, Grace and John Adams never imagined they would return there 60 years later.

Eastern Daily Press: John and Grace Adams, of Wymondham, celebrate their diamond wedding.John and Grace Adams, of Wymondham, celebrate their diamond wedding. (Image: Submitted)

But that's what happened thanks to a surprise gift from the Wymondham couple's daughter and son-in-law to mark their diamond wedding.

Grace, 80, and John, 83, said they were thrilled to once again see the church at Paddock Wood.

The visit was part of a weekend-long tour of the country on the Cathedrals Express, a historic steam train.

Grace said the tour was a wonderful surprise.

She said: 'It was all very secretive and we didn't know anything.

'Then we travelled to Milton Keyne in a Pullman first-class coach and had a champagne breakfast.

'We saw lots of train-spotters taking photos and waving, all the way up to Chester, because it's a very special train.'

'It was all very exciting and we were tired, but happy, by the end.'

John said they also received a card from the Queen to mark the milestone. He said: 'We had such a wonderful time.'

Grace said the secret to having a successful marriage was a simple matter of trust.

'We've always been happy together because we're honest with each other. What more can you say?'

Grace said she didn't have a great first impression of John when she saw him at a village dance in the 1950s.

'I said to my friend: 'look at that person over there!' He was asleep in a chair. But it wasn't through drink, because he didn't drink, he had just been working a lot.'

They met two weeks later at another village social.

Grace said: 'I was dancing with my auntie and he came over and said 'excuse me', and we danced. That was the way it was done in those days, if a young man liked the look of you.

'I thought he was a very handsome and he was a good dancer in those days.'

They started seeing each other and John soon proposed, but had some long spells apart in the early years.

Grace said: 'I didn't see home very often because he was in the RAF. After we got engaged he went off to Egypt on service for 18 months, and when he came home we got married.'

After John left the services, they moved to Norfolk and started a transport company called J M Adams Haulage, which they ran until 1980. Grace said: 'We started off with one lorry and finished with 12.'