THE 1967 ‘summer of love’ led to a half-century of happiness for a young couple who met on the steps outside Bournemouth’s Pavilion.

Steve Oliver was 17 when he met 16-year-old Jill Braley and knew she was the girl he would marry.

The date was Saturday, July 1, 1967, and their courtship flourished during the months when music, fashion and youth culture transformed the world around them.

The pair only met because both had friends who wanted to go out that night. They ended up queuing outside the Pavilion to see a soul band in the Ocean Rooms.

Steve said: “A mate came to me and said, ‘Do you fancy going out?’

“Jill was coming home from work and had a similar conversation with a girl on the bus. Both of us, from being with friends, ended up at the Pavilion.”

Steve’s friend Mike knew Jill’s friend and the pair got talking.

Steve said: “I’ve said to my wife since, I knew the minute I met her that this was the girl I was going to end up marrying. It took Jill a little bit longer.”

Jill said: “He was very gushing. I held back just a little bit.

“I went home the first night I met him and my mum can remember me saying, ‘I’ve met this really cute guy’. When she met him, she said, ‘How can a 6ft bloke be cute?’ I was smitten but I was only 16.”

Nonetheless, the couple arranged to come back for the regular music night at the Pavilion Ballroom the next day.

Jill said: “He walked me to the bus stop and he said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow at the Pavilion’. I did and that was it. We haven’t been apart much ever since.”

Steve, from Slades Farm, was working as a window dresser at Bobby’s department store, now Debenhams, in the Square. Jill, from Coy Pond, was a hairdresser at John Stewart’s in Westover Road. They regularly met for lunch in Bournemouth Gardens as well as going out at night.

Steve saved enough money for them to marry in 1972. He went on to run his own gardening and cleaning company. The couple live around 40 yards from the place where Steve was born.

They have two children – Louise, who married a man called Matthew, and Matthew, who married a woman called Louise. They now have three grandchildren.

“Our life is wonderful,” said Jill.