Never too old for marriage

Two newlyweds have shown that there is no upper limit for getting married by tying the knot well into their retirement.

Thomas Bell, 83, married Gloria Glendine, 74, at Enfield Baptist Church in a wedding attended by 300 after romance blossomed from meeting on a coach holiday to Wales.

The new Mrs Bell said in the Guardian-series: "When he first sat down next to me on the coach I knew there was something and as the holiday went on we spent more and more time together."

Mrs Bell took the coach trip to Wales after a visit to the Isle of Wight fell through, while Mr Bell, a widower, was there recovering from a stroke and the recent death of his daughter.

"Romance blossomed and after six months of friendship I told her I had grown very fond of her, in fact I had fallen in love with her," said Mr Bell.

He then sent round a bundle of flowers to his Barbados-born wife and she now plans to move in with him in Enfield after he treated her to a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow arrival for the nuptials.

Despite their age, they did not rush things, it being three years since they met and a year since Mr Bell proposed, but he gave her a ring set with three diamonds to signify the three years he had known her.