Stanley Green was on a Sunday cycle ride when he stopped to talk to Daphne Mickleburgh for the first time in the spring of 1935.

Two years later, the couple were married and are set to celebrate their 74th wedding anniversary at the weekend with their family.

Mr Green, who is now 93, was a young farm worker when he came across his future wife who was taking her nephew for a walk.

'I went on a cycle ride one Sunday and got as far as Old Buckenham Hall and there was a girl pushing a pram and that girl turned out to be my wife.'

'I lived at North Lopham and she lived at Old Buckenham and I had to bike six miles to see her, but it was worth it!' he said.

The couple, who now live at Roydon, were married on a snowy day at Old Buckenham Church on March 27, 1937 and shared a wedding reception with Daphne's sister, Louisa, at Morley Village Hall.

Mr and Mrs Green, who looked after London evacuee children at their farmhouse in North Lopham during the second world war, went on to have eight children, 19 grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren and two great, great grandchildren.

Mrs Green, 91, a former dinner lady at Tibenham Primary School, said they were braced for some surprises from their family when they celebrate their 74th anniversary as a married couple on Sunday.

'We must have thought something of each other because we are still together. I do not think there is any secret really. We have an understanding between each other and we never go to bed on bad feelings. The older we have got, the more mellow we have become and we do not have so many arguments,' she said.

'We miss our independence and rely on other people to get about.

'We have a lovely family and they are always ready to help,' she said.