Deputy Mayor of Ferryhill, Councillor Liam Fellows, visited a lovely local couple, Jack and Ann Gash, as they celebrated 60 years of marriage on Thursday 28 September.
They were presented with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and an engraved whisky tumbler on behalf of Ferryhill Town Council. The presentation was extra special to the couple as the Deputy Mayor, Liam, is their grandson.
Jack, from Ferryhill Station, met Ann, from West Cornforth, at a dance at the old Ferryhill Station WMC and they were married at St Aiden’s Church in Chilton on 28th September 1963. After leaving school in 1955, Jack started work at Mainsforth Colliery and has worked in pits across the Durham Coalfield over the years, lastly Vane Tempest until the colliery closed in 1991. He then went on to become a greenkeeper at Ramside Hall until he retired in 2009.
When Ann left school she worked at Siemens and Smart and Browns before taking a break to raise the couple’s four children. Once the family grew up, she returned to work as a cleaner in local schools and was cleaning supervisor at Ferryhill Station Primary School before retiring from Prismo in Ferryhill Station.
The couple, who lived in Ferryhill Station, moved to Nottingham for three years following colliery work in 1967. They returned to Ferryhill and moved into Haig Street where they lived for 48 years before moving into a bungalow in Belsay Close this year.
They have four children, ten grandchildren – including Liam – and six great-grandchildren. Jack enjoyed socialising with friends in the Eldon Arms and Commercial Hotel until its closure and Ann is a regular at Ferryhill Sport & Education Centre for the coffee morning, lunch club and weekly bingo.
The couple celebrated their special occasion by hosting a party for family and friends to enjoy the day with them.
Ferryhill & Chilton's local community newspaper.
