THEIR secret to a long and happy marriage is simple – a shed and football.

Fred and Sheila Betts have spent all their married lives in the same house in Hampshire.

The pair still look at each other adoringly and dote on each other, and they put it all down to the fact that Fred can escape to his shed and Sheila can go and watch the Saints play.

Now they have been given the chance to celebrate 70 years together again – after thinking that they may not make it last year.

Sheila, 89, was in hospital for months last year after complications from an operation, and Fred, 92, travelled to see her from their home in Church Road, Bishopstoke, every day.

It was during this time that the couple’s official 70th wedding anniversary fell but they didn’t get a chance to celebrate the occasion, so this year as their 71st anniversary approaches Sheila and Fred’s three sons and their families will be throwing a huge party.

The couple married on April 8 in 1944 at St Mary’s Church in Bishopstoke, having met four years before when Sheila was 14 and Fred 18 at a boy’s club tea dance.

The wedding was during Fred’s leave from the Army and they had a one-day honeymoon in Lymington before he had to go and serve in countries including Italy, Egypt and Palestine.

One year after their wedding Sheila became pregnant with their first child and moved into their home – where they still live today – but Fred couldn’t get back to meet their son David until his first birthday.

After the war Sheila started working as a dinner lady at the Bishopstoke School as well as raising David, now 70, then Norman, 67, and Colin, 62.

Daily Echo:

Fred and Sheila on their wedding day

She was then promoted to caretaker and moved to the infants school, where she stayed until her retirement.

During this time Fred travelled across the UK working as an electrician for rail companies and eventually was able to stay at Eastleigh rail station to be close to his family.

The grandfather-of-four said: “I don’t think there is just one thing that you can attribute our long marriage to, but I’ve got my shed where I can potter around and Sheila loves her football.”

Sheila has owned a Saints season ticket for more than 45 years and goes whenever there is a home game with her sons.

The great-grandmother-of-three said: “I don’t know what I would do without Fred. Who would have thought all those years ago that we would still be here in this house, with a beautiful healthy family.

“We are very lucky really. We’ve had our ups and downs like any couple and argued, but you never go to sleep angry and you always do the little things, like making each other tea and letting each other have time to do things they enjoy.”