Rugby couple mark 70 years of marriage
Stalwarts of Bath Rugby Club who married in 1952 have celebrated their platinum wedding.
Stan and Jean Brinkworth were married in St Michael and All Angels’ Church in Twerton on August 30, 1952, when Stan was 22 and Jean 18.
Stan was born and bred in Bath and lived in Upper Mount Pleasant until he was nine, before moving to Kelston View, Whiteway.
He was one of eight children but on losing his mother at the age of three, his father remarried and he acquired a step sister and two step brothers but to him they were all just his brothers and sisters.
Jean came to Bath after being evacuated from London in 1939. She stayed with various families until her mother and father joined her in 1941, along with her six siblings.
They lived in Great Stanhope Street until it was bombed and were then moved to Widcombe and then on to Combe Down, where her twin sisters were born. They later moved to Kelston View, Whiteway, and this is where the couple’s story begins as she fell for the boy next door.
Stan was always visiting Jean’s house before they got together as they had a TV and his home didn’t, so he used to watch the wrestling with Jean’s parents.
Their first date was at the Scala Cinema in Moorland Road.
After they married, Stan lived with Jean’s parents until their first child, Julie, was born in 1953.
Jean worked in the kitchen at King Edward’s School, serving the boys their lunch and according to their granddaughter Zoe, Stan worked for many years for Shorts on Lower Bristol Road. During the years of plentiful fuel, Stan remembers leaving the lorries running overnight, as that was easier than starting them each morning. Stan was a general builder for most of his career, then for the last 10 years of his working life he worked for Bath Stone Company, retiring at 70.
Jean and Stan became regulars at Bath Rugby Club, before its Premiership days, where Stan and his brother Tom were on the management committee and worked behind the bar and Jean prepared post-game meals for the players.
Stan, 92, and Jean, 88, celebrated their anniversary with a joint party at Bailbrook House, with their first-born granddaughter, Zoe, who celebrated her 10th anniversary the same day.
The platinum couple now have two great-grandchildren, Khira-leigh and Lexi.