Well-known Buxton shopkeepers celebrate 60 years together

Ken and Anne Gould met in 1956 while working together at her father’s ironmongers shop - Shaw Brothers.

After Ken, 81, asked Anne, 80, out the shop assistant pair’s first date was a trip to the cinema.

They dated for three years - keeping their romance alive by writing letters while Ken served two years’ national service in Germany - before marrying at St Peter’s Church on New Year’s Day, 1959.

After a ‘lovely’ wedding reception at St Peter’s Church Hall the couple were back at work the following Monday.

Ken and Anne’s first house after marrying was on Buxton’s Prince’s Road - where they spent ten years before moving to their current home on Queen’s Road.

The pair took over Anne’s parents’ Fairfield corner shop Ben Bunkers five years after marrying - which they ran for 20 years before starting B Bunkers Ltd pottery and hardware store on Buxton’s Market Place.

They both retired in 1997 but remained busy with organisations such as the Friends of the Cavendish Hospital, Buxton Chamber and Buxton Well Dressing.

The pair agreed the secret to a happy marriage was to ‘work hard together’.

Anne said: “It worked well for us working together and being married.

“In all our businesses we’ve had a brilliant time - we’ve just enjoyed it and the challenge of retail.”

Ken and Anne - who have two children Christine, 58, and Robert, 52, and grandchildren Madeline, 18, Ben, 14, and James, 11 - are celebrating their milestone with a party at their wedding reception venue St Peter’s Church Hall.