FRIENDS, neighbours and former workmates joined relations of golden wedding couple Joyce and Alan Bunting to celebrate their special day.

The couple, who hosted a party at a local golf club, have spent all but three months of their 50-year marriage in Harpenden, having moved from Harrow – where they were both born and grew up – to a newly-built house in Wroxham Way in June 1961.

Said Mr Bunting, who was a test engineer for Handley Page in Park Street at that time: “It cost us the princely sum of �2,950. That was �2,000 for the house and �950 for the plot of land.”

In 1963, Mr Bunting made a dramatic career change, becoming a technical journalist on the staff of a weekly publication dealing with trucks and buses.

He told the Herts Advertiser: “I’ve been writing about the technology of commercial vehicles, especially about their engines and transmissions, ever since, from 1970 as a freelance.”

Now 73, his interest in the subject is undiminished and he still contribute articles to a number of specialist media outlets.

Since 1974, the couple have lived in Ridgewood Drive, Harpenden, although their daughter Elaine now lives in Australia.

Mrs Bunting, 72, is a prominent member of the British Esperanto Association, firmly believing that if everyone was able to communicate in the language, there would be far fewer tensions in the world.

Mr Bunting serves on the committee of the Harpenden Local History Society and is vocal in condemning the disturbance caused to the town’s residents as a result of helicopter noise.