With divorce rates increasing each year and many young people deciding not to marry in the first place, one elderly couple may be able to offer some helpful marriage guidance.

Jim and Brenda Collins from Coxheath, both in their nineties, are celebrating their 70th year of married bliss.

Jim said: “We’ve seldom had a cross word. We just love each other.”

Brenda added: “It’s all about give and take, and making sure you never part angry.”

The couple met in 1952 when Brenda was enjoying a glass of shandy with her friend Maureen outside The Kings Arms pub at Loose, which is now a private house.

Jim said: “I had been out cycling with my friend Tony and we saw the two girls and started chatting to them.

“Tony ended up taking Maureen home and I walked Brenda home - and we’ve just never looked back!”

Brenda said: “I was 17. I had left school at 15 and was working at Hayle Mill in Tovil sorting paper.”

She said she was attracted to Jim because he was kind.

The couple married at All Saints’ Church in East Farleigh in 1955.

At the time, Brenda was living with her parents in Vicarage Lane and Jim was in Plains Avenue.

For a honeymoon, they spent their first night in Maidstone’s Royal Star Hotel.

They recalled the room did not have ensuite facilities, which caused a little embarrassment when Jim had to go down the corridor and then found he hadn’t a key to get back in their room.

They then spent a few days in London seeing the sights and going to the theatre to see The Crazy Gang at Victoria Palace.

Jim, who was born in London, came to Maidstone in 1936 at the age of five.

He left school at 13 and at one stage worked as a telegram boy for the Post Office. His job was to cycle out to any address in Maidstone with the message received at the HQ in King Street.

He was in the last cohort of telegram boys - they were soon to be replaced by men riding motorbikes.

He also worked as a galley boy in the Merchant Navy and later as an engineer for the post office.

Brenda was to work for many years at the Di Marcos coffee parlour in Week Street, opposite the old Kent Messenger offices. Later, she worked in a wallpaper shop and as a school cook.

At one stage, the couple emigrated to Hamilton in New Zealand, following Jim’s parents and siblings who had already gone there. But after two years, they returned to England. Jim’s explanation: “It was too hot!”

The couple have since enjoyed holidays abroad but always to cooler places. “We like Austria,” said Jim, who is now 93.

Brenda celebrated her 90th birthday this week which, combined with their wedding anniversary on Wednesday, meant their home in Linden Road was crammed full with flowers and cards.

We are so lucky - we are still enjoying life and still together

She said: “Everyone’s been so kind - I never realised that people would regard a 70th wedding anniversary as so special.”

The couple, who had two children, Valerie and Peter, now also have two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

They are celebrating their anniversary today (Sunday) with a cruise along the River Medway with family and friends aboard the Kentish Lady.

Brenda said: “We are so lucky. There are people much younger than us stuck in a nursing home, but we are still enjoying life and still together.”

Jim joked: “We’ve never fell out, not really, because I didn’t answer back.”