IT was love at first sight for a young couple whose eyes met across the bar at the White Hart pub almost 60 years ago.

And after 58 years of marriage, former barmaid Betty Rathbone and her husband Joe returned to the Sankey Street pub to celebrate their anniversary.

Betty said: “I was saving up to emigrate at the time, it was a part time job. I was going to go to Australia because you could get assisted passage at that time but then I met my husband-to-be. My friends all still went though.

“He was 19 and he came into the bar one night to have a drink. He was from out of town and it was just by chance. It was definitely love at first sight.

“I think on the night he came in he asked if he could walk me home, because that’s what you did in those days. Joe had just come out of the army and he was from Cronton.”

The couple married at St Alban’s Church in 1958 and went on to become pub landlords themselves.

Betty, who grew up near Bank Quay, said she did not know very much about pulling pints when she started at the White Hart but learned fast.

“I trained at the Barley Mow and then we had the Lord Rodney and the Jolly Tanner as well before we moved on to Newton-le-Willows,” she said.

“We worked in pubs our whole lives, we loved the way of life and being part of the community.”

The pair have a daughter, Beverley, and a son, Darren, as well as six grandsons.

“It was our wedding anniversary recently and Joe suggested we went back to the place where we met. We hadn’t been back since I stopped working there but the staff were great,” she explained.

“It’s quite different at the White Hart now but we had a really lovely meal. While we were there out story slowly unwound with staff and they were so kind to us. The landlord gave us a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate.

“I asked them sheepishly if I could pour a pint for Joe and of course they said yes.”