Horsham couple dance their way through 60 years of marriage

Keith, 82, and Brenda Singleton, 81, celebrated the milestone on Thursday April 9 and more than 60 years on from the couple’s first dance together they are still dancing to the same tune.

The pair first met at the Old Time Dance in Kensington Town Hall.

Keith said: “We first met in about 1952, 1953 but we didn’t get married until 1955.

“She asked me to dance and we went out for a couple of years after that.

“My mother told me I could not get married until I was 22 and my wife was told she could not get married until she was 21.

“We just about made it. I was 22 on April 5 and we got married on April 9.”

Keith was part of the King’s Troop Royal Guard Artillery and said he was very lucky to be able to organise a special Sword Guard wedding ceremony at St Michael and All Angels Church for him and his wife.

He left the army later that year and the pair moved down to Slinfold where he took up a job looking after hunter horses.

In 1967 the couple moved again to Horsham and went on to have three children and now have seven grandchildren.

But dancing seems to have been the main hobby which has kept the two so tightly knit over the past 60 years.

Keith said apart from Thursdays and the occasional Tuesday night the couple spent most evenings at different dance clubs all over the county.

He said: “When we moved to Slinfold we found a little dance club in the village.

“We used to go dancing most nights of the week. We used to go all over place dancing in places like Brighton and Worthing.’’

But it wasn’t just the dancing that kept the pair together and Keith described what he thought was the secret to a long and happy marriage.

He said: “It’s a lot of give and take.

“Those people who say they do not argue don’t exist as far as I am concerned. You have your ups and your downs but I would do it all again.”