Romantic Return for Alf and Ellen

Alf Anderson, the last station master of a village railway station, celebrated his diamond wedding anniversary with his wife Ellen yesterday.

Alf was station master at Potto in North Yorkshire, from 1945 to 1960. He returned to the site of the station, now a house, to relive memories of the days when it was a fully fledged busy station.

He and Ellen also enjoyed a 60th wedding anniversary meal at Potto Hall in the village.

Alf, 89, now of Grosvenor Road, Billingham, was also station master at Wynyard railway station on Teesside when it was used to take in wounded servicemen and PoWs from the Second World War for transport to North East hospitals.

Alf said: "I really enjoyed working on the railways. But it was a sad day when the Beeching cuts meant the end of Potto Station.

"They were exiting times at Wynyard when we were one of the national network of stations for taking in wartime casualties, first from the trenches, and then from the Doodlebugs in London."

The pair met when Alf was ill with TB at Wolsingham sanatorium for infectious diseases. Ellen nursed him and they fell in love, even though forming relationships with patients was against the rules.

They married, had three children and Ellen retrained as a lecturer in social sciences and helped found North Tyneside college, where she served as head of department for 30 years. She was awarded the Queen's Silver Jubilee medal for services to education in 1977.

Diamond wedding couple: Alf and Ellen Anderson outside their old Potto railway station home yesterday. (Picture: Mike Gibb)