Beechwood Park Couple Celebrates 70th Wedding Anniversary

From A Houseboat On The Thames, To Rolls Royce, To Brushing Shoulders With The Stars At Harrods – Brio Couple Celebrate Their Platinum Wedding Anniversary And Share 70 Years Of Love

 

Celebrating milestone wedding anniversaries is always a joyous occasion, but for one couple who live at Beechwood Park in Stow-on-the-Wold – Wednesday 24^th July 2024 was a momentous occasion, as they celebrated their platinum anniversary and 70 years of marriage alongside family and friends. 

As an added treat, the couple were whisked away in a vintage 1926 Bentley and enjoyed meandering the lanes of Stow-on-the-Wold – a surprise arranged by the team at the Brio Retirement Living development. 

The happy couple, Anthony Brewis, 94, and Sheila Offord, 92, married at the Holy Trinity, Brompton in Knightsbridge on 24^th July 1954 at 12 noon. Interestingly it was a double wedding with Sheila’s younger sister Shirley – as their father thought it would be more cost effective to have a joint wedding! 

Anthony shares: “We met in a youth club in Knightsbridge through Sheila’s friend Caroline – who I was dating at the time! Caroline had decided she wanted to ‘palm me off’ so thought Sheila could do the honours … of which I’m now forever grateful for!”, he chuckles. 

The relationship had only just started to bloom, when at the tender age of 21 Anthony was called up for the Armed Forces and based in Egypt, but as soon as he returned to the UK, he rekindled the relationship with Sheila, and they went on to marry shortly afterwards. Anthony was given permission for just four days off work for their honeymoon as his boss at the time was visiting the USA – so he and Sheila celebrated their nuptials in the New Forest.

The couple have also brushed many a shoulder with famous stars living in and visiting London via their jobs. Sheila explains: “Anthony worked his entire career at Rolls Royce – starting as a junior clerk on £6 a week, working his way up to being the showroom manager. Most weeks he’s have film stars and VIP’s visiting which he loved! I worked in Harrods as the secretary for the overseas sales adviser, so I’d bump into many famous people too. It was great fun and we used to compare notes during our time together after work.”

The couple have shared many homes during their 70 year marriage – including a short stint in their first home which was a boat on the River Thames, perfect for sailing in their spare time, then due to the couple being keen to start a family they were given a house in Kensington by Sheila’s father which is where they brought up their three children, Simon, Amanda and Michael. They are now proud grandparents too. 

“We’ve had an exciting life”, recalls Anthony, “as once the children had left school, we were able to move to Paris with Rolls Royce. We were very lucky to travel the world, but our hearts were always at home in the UK. We eventually settled in beautiful Pembrokeshire in a house I built for us. We decided that it was time to move somewhere equally as beautiful but with a layer of support as we travel through our 90’s – which is why Beechwood Park is now our home. It’s just perfect for us and we were thrilled to celebrate our 70^th wedding anniversary here.”

The happy couple also celebrated their anniversary amongst family and friends with an afternoon tea provided by Beechwood Park’s very own Slate and Grain brasserie, bar and bistro.

Sheila concluded: “We had so much fun, and it was it was a very happy day – made even more special by the surprise of the vintage 1926 Bentley! We can’t thank the team at Beechwood Park enough for all the effort they went to and it’s certainly a day we’ll never forget!

 

“If we can offer any words of wisdom to any young married couples out there, our secret to a long and happy marriage is good food, tolerance and love! It’s certainly worked for us and we’re definitely as robust as platinum!”