REG Sadler proved himself a real knight of the road when he offered to give one of a group of girls a lift home on the back of his motorbike.

More than 60 years after that initial meeting near Tintern, Reg and the lucky lady are celebrating a landmark anniversary.

Reg married Marian at St Michael’s Church in Tintern on September 15 1956 and “he still thinks the world of me and I think the world of him.”

The couple live just a stone’s throw from the cottage in Tintern in which Reg was born.

Marian was born in Luton, Bedfordshire but the family returned to Monmouthshire where her father ran Tintern Garage.

Marian said: “He was on his Vincent motorbike and I was walking down the road with a gang of girls and he said: ‘Can I give any of you girls a lift?’ I lived the farthest away, so they said: ‘Go on Marian’.

“When we got outside the garage he asked me if I’d like to go to the pictures.”

They would often travel by motorbike to the Odeon cinema in Newport and visit the cafe across the road where they would have “a lovely steak for 5s 6d.”

Marian was 16 when they met and Reg was 22. They married three years later and afterwards loaded the motorbike onto the train at Chepstow for a honeymoon in the Exeter area.

Reg enjoyed motorsport and they would travel on the trusty Vincent to meets at tracks around the country.

Marian said: “There was none of the gear you’ve got today, so it was freezing.”

The couple have enjoyed regular trips to Cornwall throughout their married life although “we don’t have the motorbike anymore.”

The couple reckon the secret to a long and happy marriage is “give and take”.