HAVING lived in the Yeoford area for almost 50 years Don and Sheila Nicholson are known to a lot of people first in their farming life and now Don as an artist.

They are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary this month having married on October 3, 1959 in Lusaka, Zambia.

They had grown up within 20 miles of each other on Teesside, Sheila one of 12 children, but did not meet until both were working in what was then Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. None of either family went out for the wedding. In 1959 flights were too costly, by sea was too long.

They did not meet when Don was a student at Seale Hayne Agricultural College and Sheila stationed for a time at HMS Drake, the naval training establishment. She had worked for the Post Office in England, the GPO, before joining the WRNS.

When she left the Royal Navy Sheila and friends wanted to try “something different” and so they sailed for Rhodesia aboard the Union Castle.

Sheila was in charge of the Post Office telephone exchange first in Salisbury and then Lusaka, Don was an agricultural officer with the Colonial Service.

He was working in the Zambezi valley, part of a resettlement scheme for the Kariba Dam and was on a weekend visit to Lusaka when he met Sheila.

They lived first at Bulawayo, Don working for an agricultural company, then moving to Umtali (now Mutare), living in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) for five years and then in Nigeria where Don founded an animal foods company, and the family survived two military coups before deciding to move back to England.

That took them to Kent, Don being sales manager of Pfizer’s agricultural division. Although offered more work abroad, Don and Sheila decided to buy a farm in Devon.

They moved to Binneford, a dairy farm near Yeoford in 1970, later buying Trevince at the top of the hill above them, later building a new house and farm down the road, now Summerhill, before moving to their present bungalow on the edge of Yeoford 32 years ago.

That gave Don the chance to pick up his interest in painting that had to be dormant for so long.

He has become one of the top Westcountry artists, was a member of Tiverton Art Group and the Tedburn Art Group, now at Whitestone, as well as tutoring with Sue Bloomfield at her studio near Cheriton Bishop and others.

He has had the magic of exhibiting in London at the Mall Galleries thanks to being acceptedly the “Not the Turner Prize” event in 2001.

Sheila has been a member of Yeoford Yarns for at least 15 years and an expert in sugarcraft work. She is Church Warden of St Andrew’s Church in Hittisleigh and frequent supporter of events in that village as well as in Yeoford.

She and Don had four children but one son died in an accident abroad. Their other son became a geologist and later a theologian and lives in Bradford. One daughter is in Ireland and the other became a midwife and lives locally with her family.

Don and Sheila have 11 grandchildren and one great granddaughter.

At a tea party for more than 65 people held in Hittisleigh Village Hall on Saturday, September 28 Don and Sheila shared memories with family, one of whom had flown over from Canada, and friends from all parts of the country.

They were surprised to be presented with a card of congratulations from the Queen.