Telford couple win love title

Romance is not just on Valentine's Day

A Shropshire husband and wife have been named Britain's most romantic couple.

Ted and Joy Cowling, from Telford, have been married for 58 years and were chosen from hundreds of couples to win the title for Valentine's Day.

Mr Cowling, 83, and Mrs Cowling, 78, met in 1945 when he was a flying instructor and she was a radio telephonist at Castle Combe, Wiltshire.

She answered an emergency call for help when his engine failed 50 feet above the ground and talked him down to safety.

We still hold hands, even if it's just to help each other stand up!

Joy Cowling

They have been together ever since, and battled through the grief of losing two daughters to cancer.

"It's been a long marriage, but we have stuck together and helped each other through," said Ted.

"It's about love and respect. I respect the very shoes Joy is standing in today."

Supermarket competition

"We are in love," added Mrs Cowling.

"We've never fallen out of love. We still hold hands, even if it's just to help each other stand up."

Five couples were picked from hundreds of entries to be shortlisted as Britain's most romantic couple in a supermarket competition.

The winners were announced at a Valentine dinner in Mayfair, central London.