Most of Jack and Margaret Burgess's family of six children, 23 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren joined their golden wedding anniversary party at the Calf's Head, Worston.

The party took place 50 years to the day after their 1958 wedding at St Leonard's Church, Padiham, which had been followed by a reception at the Starkie Arms.

The couple had met a year earlier at Whalley Assembly Rooms – the same year Mr Burgess finished his two years' National Service with the Royal Engineers in Gibraltar.

After they were married, the couple settled in Mr Burgess's home town of Clitheroe, initially living in Moor Lane. They later moved to The Crescent and finally to their current home in Queen Street.

For 16 years Mr Burgess worked at Ribble Motors on the buses and also as a lorry driver. Mrs Burgess, who worked at Mullards, Simonstone, before she married, worked part-time at Whiteacre School and as a full-time mum to the couple's six children and the many foster children they cared for.

Her work as foster mum to dozens of youngsters earned Mrs Burgess the title of Clitheroe's mum-in-a-million in 1997 when she was chosen by judges as the winner of a Ribble Valley Mum of the Year competition.

According to Mr and Mrs Burgess, being surrounded by children and pulling together as a team have been the secrets of their five decades of marriage. Said Mr Burgess: "We just love them."