THE original Ken and Barbie are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary next month.

Ken and Barbara Tuck, both born in 1929, are older than the popular dolls with the same name.

The pair are set to celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary in September and are ‘very much still in love’.

Ken and Barbara have known each other their whole life and were at each other's first birthday parties because their fathers worked for the same firm.

Barbara said: “I was three months older than Ken, so I could walk and he couldn’t.”

The couple got together at the age of 16.

Barbara said: “We belonged to Pokesdown Youth Club which was a boys club and then they let the girls in, we used to go on outings together on our bicycles.”

They have lived in the house they built together in Tuckton, ever since they got married in 1951.

Barbara said: “I borrowed my wedding dress. The clothing coupons had finished but everything was still short. We flew to Jersey for our honeymoon, but we didn't have the money to come back like that, so we had to go on a boat which took us eight hours.”

They built their house shortly after they got married.

Ken said: “We bought a piece of land in 1953, it was all brambles and Broadway was a dirt track, none of these places were there then. We’ve still got a picture of Barbara standing on the plot of land with a soap board in her hand and snow on the ground.”

During their life, the couple have travelled all over the world and raised a close-knit family, most of whom still live in Dorset.

Their daughter Carol said: “Mum has always said, if anybody asks you to do it, say yes and do it because if you don't like it, you don’t have to do it again but you won’t know if you don't try. So, she's had helicopter rides, she's done everything.”

The couple's favourite memory is having their family, they have three grandchildren and soon to be six great-grandchildren.

Ken said: “We’re very fortunate to be so close, the family that we’ve got, I couldn’t wish for anything more.”

He added: “What I feel is, I never want to say I wish I’d done so and so. We’ve done it and then sometimes you think well I’d like to go back to Hong Kong or back to Disneyland with the children but I’ve got those memories and going back may never be the same, I might get disappointed.

"So, I’m very happy and content with what I’ve done and seen. There is nothing I would change, we’ve always worked hard and done what we wanted to do.”

The couple still have daily trips out and about in the area and they do all their housework and gardening themselves.

Barbara says the secret to being together so long is to: “Give and take and sometimes it’s best to let them think they’re right.

“What he can’t do, I can do and what I can’t do, he has to do. So, its a case of giving and taking and Ken always been there, he’s always been one for staying at home with the family, he’s been a good dad and a good husband, I’ve never gone without anything.”

Ken said: I’ve never had an inclination to want to move from here because it’s got so many memories, one time we talked about moving and all three grandchildren turned and say you can’t move that is home, so here we are.”

The couple will be celebrating their wedding anniversary with a family meal out and hopefully a trip to France next year.