When We Are Married, by JB Priestley, presented by Wotton-under-Edge Dramatic Society (From Gazette Series)

When We Are Married, by JB Priestley, presented by Wotton-under-Edge Dramatic Society

A SILVER Wedding anniversary was celebrated in triplicate last week.

For three evenings, enthusiastic audiences in Wotton-under-Edge Town Hall were transported to Clecklewyke, a town in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

The three happy couples were Alderman Joseph Helliwell, and his wife Maria; Councillor Albert Parker and Annie; and Herbert and Clara Soppitt.

Celebrations were interrupted when a relative newcomer (to the Society as well) was told in no uncertain terms to 'go back where you came from'- the chapel organist came from the South of England..

When the couples were asked the secret of a happy marriage, the Gazette (alias Yorkshire Argus) learnt about washing socks, 'wear and tear', civic duties and foot and mouth disease (opening your mouth and putting your foot in it).

Marriage was declared to be 'a serious business' - after all, 'where would women be without marriage?' ('Single' was the response from one of the wives...)

Press photographs of the occasion were delayed by a revelation that the marriages may not have been properly authorised - was it a real parson who carried out the ceremony, somebody dressed up or someone unqualified?

Reputations seemed to be at stake, exacerbated by the appearance of a spectacular'woman with paint on her face and hair dyed'. Word travelled round the town helped by a disgruntled housekeeper Mrs Northrop and the Hare and Hounds pub.

All was smoothed over and legality restored by the end - the Argos photographer recovered well after his camera almost matched his drunken unsteadiness, helped by the exuberant maid Ruby Birtle.

The three couples had plenty of support throughout their twenty-five years together, in their public lives and behind the scenes (as in this production).