Sixty years after The Northern Echo photographed their wedding, a couple have returned to celebrate their diamond anniversary in the North Yorkshire village where they married.
John and Jacky McLean tied the knot at Christ Church in Great Ayton on October 1, 1966, surrounded by family and friends, then held their reception at the Royal Oak pub.
The Northern Echo captured the day, including a memorable photograph of John carrying his new wife over a puddle outside the church.
Now, 60 years later, John and Jacky have returned to Great Ayton, where The Northern Echo has photographed them again.
John and Jacky McLean in Great Ayton (Image: Stuart Boulton)
Their story began six years before the wedding, when the two young art students met in Middlesbrough in 1960.
Studying at Middlesbrough College of Art on Green Lane, Jacky lived in Billingham and John in Great Ayton.
The couple said: "We were both young, both interested in art, and neither of us could have imagined that walking through the doors of that college would eventually lead to 60 years of marriage."
They began dating after about a year at art school, when arranging a meeting was far harder than it is today.
John and Jacky McLean at Christ Church in Great Ayton back on October 1, 1966 (Image: Stuart Boulton)
Jacky recalled: "In those days there were no mobile phones, and neither of us had a telephone at home.
"If we wanted to meet, everything had to be carefully arranged beforehand, with our parents knowing where we were going and, more importantly, when we were expected home."
The number 60 bus between Great Ayton and Billingham became central to their courtship, but it wasn't always reliable.
During their early days living in relatively rural North Yorkshire, they went to the pictures and attended dances organised by the art college.
John and Jacky McLean at Christ Church in Great Ayton 60 years after marrying in the village (Image: Stuart Boulton)
Some dances took them beyond Middlesbrough and into the countryside.
Jacky said: "Sometimes the Art College dances were held in a pub somewhere out in the country near Danby, far enough away that we wouldn’t disturb the neighbours.
"Although, in truth, there weren’t many neighbours to disturb.
"The only ones we were likely to encounter were the sheep.
"This became particularly memorable when we had to use the outside toilet.
"It was perhaps not the most romantic setting for a young couple falling in love, but it certainly provided a story to remember."
John and Jacky McLean with The Northern Echo's photograph taken in 1966 (Image: Stuart Boulton)
Despite Jacky being from Billingham, Great Ayton became central to their relationship.
John’s father ran Great Ayton corner shop Walter Willsons, where Jacky worked on Saturdays.
They shared the love of art that first brought them together at college.
With sketchbooks in hand, they explored Great Ayton, the surrounding countryside and the North Yorkshire coast.
The couple recalled all these years later, saying: "We wandered through the village and out onto the North Yorkshire moors, sketchbooks in hand.
"We also loved the coast. We sketched in Staithes and Whitby, but perhaps most often in Sandsend.
John and Jacky McLean (Image: Stuart Boulton)
"The McLean family already had strong ties there. Many McLeans lived in the village, and John’s grandmother lived in a cottage that had been in the family for around 200 years.
"There was even a fascinating piece of family history attached to the place.
"One of John’s ancestors had arrived in Whitby on a whaling ship after fleeing the Battle of Culloden."
Sandsend became another key place in their story.
They spent summers there, with Jacky working at the local Wimpy while John sketched cottages and sold his art.
John and Jacky McLean at Christ Church in Great Ayton 60 years after marrying in the village (Image: Stuart Boulton)
Jacky said: "We were young and in love, but we were also discovering that we shared something deeper, a love of drawing, the countryside, old buildings and the particular beauty of the landscape."
After art college, they went to Leeds University to qualify as teachers and began careers in education.
Then they chose to emigrate to South Africa, thousands of miles from where they had met and fallen in love.
But Yorkshire remained part of their lives despite the distance.
Jacky said: "Although we were leaving Yorkshire behind, we never really left it. Great Ayton, the Cleveland Hills, Sandsend and the North Yorkshire coast remained part of us.
"The landscapes we had sketched together when we were young stayed in our memories, waiting to reappear in the years ahead.
The happy couple 60 years after their wedding day (Image: Stuart Boulton)
"Perhaps that is why, all these years later, I still find myself returning to them through my own sketches and poems.
"The places where we first fell in love became part of the creative thread that has run through our entire life together."
Now, 60 years after their wedding, John and Jacky have returned to where it all began.
They stayed at a property on Bridge Street in Great Ayton from September 29 to October 4, spending their diamond anniversary in the village.
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And the pair were delighted to be back.
"It always holds a special place in our hearts, it's the place we fell in love and a place where we got married," the couple added.
The two anniversaries share another link, though.
On their wedding day, The Northern Echo photographed John carrying Jacky over a puddle outside the church, with the caption "Thanks Sir Walter," a supposed nod to Sir Walter Raleigh, who was reported to have laid his expensive velvet cloak over a muddy puddle so Queen Elizabeth I could walk across it without getting her feet wet.
Sixty years later, the newspaper has photographed them together again outside the church in Great Ayton as they celebrate 60 years of marriage.