They are celebrating 60 years together – but Joan and Raymond Haynes had a helping hand from fate in getting them together.

Joan was 19 in 1951 when she first met Raymond, 18, at the clock tower in Gravesend.

Joan, then of Stanley Road, had arranged to bring her sister Gwen along to meet Raymond, of Hampton Crescent, while his friend was due to meet Joan.

But, as luck would have it, only Raymond, now 80, and Joan, 81, turned up and the pair went to a dance together.

The couple married at All Saints’ Church in Northfleet on March 20, 1954, and moved in with Joan’s mother Winifred for a couple of weeks.

Over the course of their lives they have lived at many addresses in the town, including Shrubbery Road, Prospect Place, St Hilda’s Way, Medhurst Crescent, College Road, Mungo Park Road, Winters Croft, Collier Road and Bourne Road.

The couple have three daughters, Wendy, Jane-Marie and Alisa, and five grandchildren, Andrew, Jodine, Melanie, Gareth and Nicholas. They also have eight great-grandchildren.

Raymond, now living in Watling Court with Joan, said he thought the world of her and that she had kept him “on the straight and narrow”.

Daughter Wendy said: “We had a party at the Elite Venue and we had friends and family come down from all over the place.”