A Jamaican man and a Yorkshire miner’s daughter who overcame prejudice in 1950s England are celebrating 60 years of married life together.
Chester Clarke, who emigrated from Jamaica in 1955, fell in love with Yorkshire girl Celia Carney after a chance meeting in Huddersfield.
They got married in Barnsley and went on to have four children but their union didn’t meet the approval of everyone.
When they were looking for a house in the 1950s a Huddersfield estate agent told them they couldn’t buy a property because Chester was a ‘foreigner.’
Chester, 87, and Celia, who turns 80 this week, remember seeing notes on rented houses which stated ‘no blacks, no Irish’.
“People used to knock me at work, saying I had married an immigrant,” said Celia, who worked in a mill in Elland.
She recalls meeting Chester and says he was a serious looking young man.
“When I first saw him I said ‘if he smiled he would crack his forehead’ because he was dead serious.”
At the time Chester was boarding in a property on New North Road and was working as a bus driver. He later went on to work at David Brown’s on Aston Martin motor cars .
Chester said he was happy to arrive in England after 15 days aboard a ship from Jamaica.
“I came straight up to Huddersfield from London,” he said. “My cousin was in Huddersfield so we met up. I worked on the buses and ended up knowing half of the people of Huddersfield.”
The couple, who are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary this week, previously lived near Greenhead Park and now live at Newsome.
They have four grown-up children, Christopher, Beverley, Anita and Martin, five grandchildren and one grandson.
