A COUPLE with a combined age of 183 have become Britain's oldest newlyweds after tying the knot in Wimborne.

Rob Cave, 91, and Margaret James, 92, wed in front of 150 friends and family at Wimborne Minster on Friday.

The pair have known each other for over 30 years but became a couple after their respective spouses died within three months of each other in 2015.

Former actress Margaret played station cafe waitress, Beryl Walters, in the 1945 tearjerker, Brief Encounter, and is the last surviving member of the main cast.

She said: "I am over the moon. We had a wonderful wedding day and the sun shone for us all day. We will still be here for a long time yet, we are both very happy and very well."

Rob added: "It is not a marriage out of convenience, it is a marriage out of romance.

"It has only just occurred to us that we are probably the country's oldest newlyweds but I won't be applying to the Guinness Book of Records.”

The combined age of Rob and Margaret is 12 years greater than Joan Grant and Ted Wright, who were thought to have been Britain's oldest newlyweds after they married in Swindon earlier this year.

Rob was married to first wife Mavis for 66 years until she died three years ago aged 87 and they have a daughter, Julia Palmer, who acted as Margaret's matron of honour.

Margaret’s husband passed away three years ago aged 93.

Margaret said: "My husband and I and Ron and Mavis were good friends for quite a long time. When Mavis suddenly died the first thing I did was to rush around to see Rob and say how very sorry I was.

"Then he did the same for me when my husband passed away."

Rob added: "We just got together and consoled each other to begin with. Then about two years ago we realised we had stopped grieving for our passed spouses and started to get very friendly.

"It wasn't really courting but we were seeing each other almost every day.

"We said 'this is ridiculous. We are living in two houses but are seeing each other every day and are happy together, we may as well move in together'.

"But we wanted do it properly. I didn't really propose. We were chatting and I said why don't we get married and Margaret was all for it."

The couple enjoyed a lunch with close friends on Saturday but don't plan on having a honeymoon.