The owners of the Lake District’s most successful self-catering cottage company, Heart of the Lakes, are celebrating their ‘golden’ status, by notching up more than 50 years of marriage! Sue and Peter Jackson, who have run their Ambleside-based business along with son, Chris, for more than 40 years, were married on 6th August 1966 in Accrington in Lancashire, before honeymooning in Ireland.
The happy couple met as teenagers and tied the knot three weeks after Sue, who trained as a primary school teacher at Charlotte Mason College in Ambleside, finished her course. The couple settled in Clitheroe where Peter worked at Ribblesdale Cement and Sue continued to teach in Accrington, before their son Chris was born in 1971. In 1974, the family moved to Scotland, before moving three years later to Saudi Arabia where Peter headed up a Saudi/British consultancy and Sue became the deputy headmistress of the British School in Al khobar. They finally settled in the Lake District, with son, Chris, who became a partner at the family firm after leaving school.
Both Peter and Sue maintain that the secret to a long and happy marriage is ‘teamwork’ and making joint decisions and have thrived working together over the years at Heart of the Lakes.
“We are thrilled to have reached such a milestone and can only add that we’ve got this far through our good friendship and keeping the channels of communication open,” laughs Sue. “Having interests in common also helps; for example, we love to travel and have just returned from our golden wedding ‘bucket list’ trip to Europe, where we enjoyed visiting Italy, France, Switzerland and Austria.”