Forres Heritage Trust invite Eric and Gladys Hayward to Forres Tolbooth see their long lost wedding photos from 1960 for the first time

TEARS of joy were shed as a couple married in Forres more than 60 years ago viewed their wedding pictures for the first time on a big screen at the Tolbooth.

Eric and Gladys Hayward (both 81) from Fogwatt, and daughter Alison Kennedy (59) from Hopeman, were invited to view 10 images taken on March 31, 1960 at the High Church – now St Leonard’s Church – by Forres Heritage Trust (FHT) member Ray Mills, son of late local newspaper photographers Digby and Sybil Mills.

Former Leanchoil Hospital employee Gladys and Alison previously attended a Memory Tea organised by the Leanchoil Trust where she mentioned to “Our Leanchoil” project officer Helen Avenell that she had never seen her wedding pictures taken by Digby. Helen asked Ray to investigate.

Ray said: “I found the negatives among thousands I’ve archived belonging to my parents – all the files are marked with details. I then used a digital scanner to convert them to black and white images then used software to edit them.”

Ray emailed Alison a wedding group shot taken for the Gazette and Forres News in 1960, then organised a handover of digital versions at the Tolbooth Courtroom.

The Haywards were delighted with the invite to view the images for the first time.

RAF Kinloss serviceman Eric met Gladys in 1958 aged 18 at a Forres Town Hall dance. At the time, Gladys lived at 8 Roysvale Place with her parents and Eric, whose parents lived in Wishaw, was in Kinloss on his first posting. Once they were married, they travelled around the world over the next three decades, posted to England, Cypress and Singapore before returning to Scotland.

But they never did pick up their wedding photos...

Gladys explained: “While Eric was waiting for me in the church he heard that that morning his father, granny and two aunts had hit a patch of ice and oil in Ballinluig on their way up and come off the road. They weren’t seriously injured but had to go to hospital. Once we were married we cancelled our hotel booking and went straight to Wishaw to help them. On our way we picked up their dog that had been kept at Pitlochry Police Station since escaping the crash!”

She added: “Once we came back from Wishaw, my parents said the photographer had taken ill. We left it too long to contact him and eventually got posted to Bath. Time went on and we moved around so the pick-up just never happened.”

Eric, Gladys and Alison shared their trip down Memory Lane with Ray and George Alexander of Forres Heritage Trust, Jo Lenihan of the Leanchoil Trust, as well as Moray councillor Lorna Creswell. The couple presented cheques for £50 each to FHT and the Leanchoil Trust.

“Seeing the pictures for the first time was amazing,” said Gladys.

“It was like going back in time. We never thought we’d see them and, apart from us and Eric’s younger brother Richard, there’s no one left alive in them. I especially liked seeing the picture of my dad, it was very special.”

Alison plans to print off copies of the photographs and send copies to her uncle.

She said: “My parents’ 60th wedding anniversary passed during lockdown – they couldn’t celebrate properly so this viewing was especially nice! I’d never seen my grandfather before. Mum was overwhelmed again afterwards when Ray showed her more photographs his dad took of Forres in the sixties.”

Ray added: “It felt good to see tears of enjoyment on their faces when they saw the pictures!”