A COUPLE who spent much of their lives travelling the world say that Mitcheldean is ‘their’ village.

John and Pauline Tandy, who recently celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary, have had four homes in the village.

They met and married in their home town of Warwick, but Mr Tandy’s job in the Royal Air Force meant they travelled across parts of the Far East and Africa.

And with friends and family in Australia and Canada, the couple have continued to travel.

Mr Tandy signed up for the RAF ‘as soon as I could’ when he was 18, fulfilling a boyhood dream.

Although the couple met when they both worked for Warwickshire County Council, Mr Tandy first asked his future wife to the cinema when he was home on leave.

Mr Tandy’s postings took him to Germany, Kenya and Singapore.

He said that the letters he received every day from his wife when he was on unaccompanied tours and she was in the UK were “like gold dust”.

“Those letters were so precious. Civvies don’t realise how precious they were,” he added.

Mrs Tandy said: “I gave up counting the number of houses after the 13th.”

They married in St Paul’s Church, Warwick.

After leaving the RAF in the early 1970s, the couple and their young family were looking for somewhere to live and came to Mitcheldean in the Forest of Dean.

Mr Tandy said: “We fell in love with Mitcheldean and moved into Baynham Road.

“And we would never move from Mitchel- dean.

“We looked at a patch of ground in Baynham Road, went to the pub and said: ‘This is our village’.

They have had four houses in the village and now live in Oakhill Road.

His next door neighbour was Mr Brian Beard, and when Mr Tandy suggested they go into business, that’s exactly what they did.

They formed Beard and Tandy Building Contractors and the company is still operating today – with vans in blue and white, the colours of Mr Tandy’s beloved West Bromwich Albion Football Club.

Mr Tandy, whose background in is accounts, retired in 2006, but still does some work “to keep the brain going.”

He said: “I’ve been a very lucky guy.

“I’ve had two fantastic careers and a lovely wife.”

And Mrs Tandy said: “I wouldn’t change him.”

The couple are the proud parents of two daughters and have four grandsons and six great-grandchildren.