WHEN Joyce and George Head first met in Blackpool 62 years ago they became teenage sweethearts.

Next month the couple, who celebrate their diamond wedding on Thursday, will return to the resort as VIP guests.

They have been invited to join Blackpool's own VE/VJ Day celebrations, to echo not only their special anniversary but also their loyalty to the seaside town which has played such an important part in their lives.

Joyce was a 16-year-old ring-spinner at Greenhalgh and Shaw's mill near her home in Brownlow Fold when she and her friend Myra went on a day-trip to Blackpool in 1943.

She had visited the famous resort since she was a little girl, annually joining the thousands gathering at Trinity Street railway station to begin their Wakes Weeks' holidays.

George was a 19-year-old Leading Aircraftman in the RAF, billetted in Blackpool with his pal Jock, miles from his home in Newbury, Berkshire. On £1 a fortnight wages, money was tight, but walking was free, so was looking. And the uniformed duo soon spotted the two pretty Lancashire lasses on the Promenade.

Looking turned to chatting, and two couples quickly emerged. The Bolton girls began making regular visits to Blackpool to meet their new friends.

But, this was wartime, and George was soon shipped out abroad. Joyce would not see him again for a further two years, but she wrote him a letter or postcard every week and sent photos to cheer him up.

"They kept me going," recalled George, now 81. After seeing action in France, Belgium and Holland, George returned to the UK, and came to see Joyce. "It all started as friendship, but it turned to more," says 78 year-old Joyce.

Within a few months they married at St Matthews Church, Brownlow Fold - George in his blue serge uniform, Joyce in her aunt's white satin wedding dress - with a meal for family and friends in a Bolton cafe. "We decided to go back to Blackpool for the day, but Myra's sister had a boarding house and invited us to stay for a week," said Joyce.

That week heralded a family tradition which saw them return many time over the years since - with their own son and daughter, their seven grandchildren and their 12 great-grandchildren.

They go to the same hotel in the north, visit the same central cafe for an afternoon cuppa and enjoy trips to Cleveleys and Fleetwood when they are not sampling the famous Golden Mile.

George retired from his job as a machinist with British Aerospace at Lostock in 1984 after 30 years. This year, they will be off to Blackpool in September, enjoying the Illuminations as a bonus.

Next weekend, they are celebrating their diamond milestone wtih a family party at their daughter's home just down the road from their own in Chorley Old Road, Doffcocker. But next month, they will be at a more official "home" when the Mayor of Blackpool, Cllr Phillip Dunne, entertains them as guests during the resort's wartime anniversary events.

The Heads put their marital longevity down to "a bit of give and take", and the fact that they have had an enduring friendship.