WEDNESDAY was a special day for a Wotton-under-Edge couple Joan and Doug Barker as they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

There is no precious symbol associated with this anniversary and Joan Barker wondered if that was because couples rarely get that far.

"Perhaps it should be named the Eureka anniversary", she said.

Joan and Doug met when they were 14 years old, in Eastbourne where they were both born.

They married three years later, in 1940. After only a week together, Doug was sent to France with his army regiment.

He was captured in occupied Poland and held at Stalag XXA, spending five working on farms and with blacksmiths.

He said: "I would not change that experience if I had my time again. I was so much luckier than my fellow soldiers who were sent to Burma and Japan."

During this time, Joan lived with her parents who ran the Fox and Hounds pub on Inglestone Common, having been evacuated from Eastbourne.

Joan worked with the Land Army and in factories, ending up in the Timber Corps around Wotton-under-Edge.

After the war, both Doug and Joan returned to Eastbourne, where they had their first child Roger. But they discovered all their friends had left their home town decided to return to Gloucestershire where Doug started a small builder's firm.

After living in Bradley Green, where their second child Susan was born, the couple moved into Coombe House, Wotton, which was derelict at the time.

Joan said: "Having to get your own water and cook in a basic way is what I call really living, and Doug always made things as easy as he could for me."

After their youngest son David was born, the Barker family grew dramatically as the couple fostered a large number of children during the next 30 years.

Four of the foster children Barry, Michael, Ken and Julie have become permanent members of the Barkers' extended family, which now includes 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Doug's memoirs will appear in print at the end of this month, available from PABD, an internet publisher.

The couple agree that if they lived their lives again, they would include the same ingredients, both the good and the bad, and of course each other.