CHILDHOOD sweethearts Tony and Jean Pyke celebrated 50 years of marriage last Saturday, the same day that the Stanmore couple’s grandson Aston Hannis married his own schoolyard sweetheart, Eleanor Marks.

Tony, 68, and Jean, 67, met when they were aged just 11.

Jean said that they used to pass each other on the way to school, but it was a group outing to the cinema that saw the pair finally meet properly.

Tony said: “I saw Jean and I said to my friend, I want to sit behind her, he must have been interested too and we ended up having a fight.”

Tony and Jean were married six years later at an intimate ceremony at Winchester registry office.

The couple soon welcomed their first child Jason, 49, who was followed by daughters Haley, 47, and Nicola, 43.

They then went on to have five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

When asked what the secret to their marriage was, Jean said: “Friends, we have always been friends. We trust each other, and always work together.”

Tony added: “I can’t sit here and say that life is full of roses. We have our ups and downs, it would be wrong to say we never argue, but we never sulk.”

In a similar turn of events, Tony and Jean’s grandson Aston, 26, met his wife Ellie, also 26, at Kings’ School, when he was 13 and she was 12.

Ellie said: “I remember I went to a SNAP disco and one of Aston’s friends came over and said ‘my mate wants to pull you’.

“The next week he wanted me to be his girlfriend. Little did I know it would last.”

Thirteen years later the couple tied the knot at a ceremony at St Luke’s Church in Stanmore on December 2.

“He didn’t propose, we just drove past St Luke’s and Aston said that if he was going to get married he would want to at that church. The next day I phoned the vicar and booked it, so he couldn’t back out.

“He then went on holiday to Amsterdam and came back with a ring.

“It all fell into place with the anniversary being on a Saturday.”