Golden wedding

TED and Pearl Roberts, who have spent many years working in the Saltash community, have celebrated their golden wedding.

The couple met when Pearl was living at Buckland Monochorum and Ted was working at a farm in the area.

Ted, 72, was born at the Waterside, Saltash, and attended North Road School until he was evacuated in World War Two to Buckland Monochorum and on leaving at 14 went to work on a farm. He later joined the Royal Navy as a stoker and served in Korea and Hong Kong onboard HMS Vanguard and HMS Opposum. On returning to Saltash, Ted worked on a building site and he was also a banksman (slinger) looking after derricks on the Tamar Bridge when it was being built in 1960-1962, working on top of the bridge.

Having a good head for heights, he later joined Saltash Fire Brigade and served with them for 26 years, becoming station officer and retiring at the age of 55. One of the big fires he had to attend during that time was at his old school at North Road which burnt down one night. Ted also worked for the MoD as head gardener at HMS Drake.

Pearl, 74, was born at Bere Alston and on leaving school looked after her sister while their mother went to work. At the age of 17 the family moved to Buckland Monochorum where Pearl did domestic work.

The couple have three children - two sons, Michael and Paul, and a daughter Pat Mullenger. They have seven grandchildren.

Pearl was a warden for the Grenfell Avenue flats for over 25 years and retired in 1993.

The couple held an open house all day when visitors came by, including the mayor of Saltash, Eve Storey and her consort Jim, who presented the couple with a bouquet of flowers.

In the evening, the family including grandchildren and Pearl's sister, Sheila Stacey from Yelverton (who had made a beautiful golden wedding cake for the couple), had a party at home.

Pants stretch across river

USERS of the Tamar Bridge will have been surprised on Friday morning to see a line of underwear stretching along a cantilever section of the bridge.

The stunt was organised by the Pirate Trust, part of radio station Pirate FM. Listeners had been invited to send in pairs of pants and £1 to get them on the bridge.

Over £1,000 was made on the day and will go to various causes in the South West.

The line of underwear was taken down after an hour and taken to environmental services for recycling.