Dancers keep in step for 70 years (From Keighley News)

Dancers keep in step for 70 years

8:00am Friday 20th May 2011 in News By Miran Rahman

A Silsden couple have danced their way to 70 years of married life.

Leonard and Nora Atkinson, of Skipton Road, celebrated the milestone anniversary with family members on Tuesday The pair spent many years enjoying old time and sequence dancing, winning medals together and continuing their hobby into their 80s.

Nora, who is now 90, said: “You can’t imagine that you’re going to be married for so long. We have had good family and a lot of happy times.

“We’ve had a comfortable life and we made plenty of friends during our dancing days.”

She and her husband have received a card from the Queen congratulating them on their platinum wedding anniversary.

Nora was born and brought up in Silsden and Leonard, 92, is originally from Grafton Road, Keighley.

They first met at a dance at Silsden Conservative Club, in 1936.

Leonard was an 18-year-old trainee draughtsman and his future wife was a 16-year-old burler and mender in a mill.

They got married in 1941 at Bethesda Chapel, in Silsden, and lived together in Exley Head.

They have two children – Paul and Rachel – and have lived in their current house in Silsden for 56 years.

During the Second World War Leonard designed armoured vehicles for a firm in Leeds and later worked as a draughtsman for companies in Keighley and Huddersfield, including Dean Smith & Grace and Landis Lund.

He said the industry was starting to become computerised, shortly before he retired in 1981.

Nora, who stopped working soon after their first child was born, added that dancing had been a big part of their lives.

“We used to go three or four times a week,” she said. “I think it’s the reason why we’ve lived for so long.”