A HERITAGE event taking place in East Tilbury this weekend will be made extra special by the visit of a couple who used to work at the Bata site and met there for the first time.

And 74 years after they were married Geoffrey and Jean Golding will be back in the village with their family.

East Tilbury will play host to an open weekend organised by the Bata Heritage Centre on Saturday (4 September) which will include tours of the old factory on the industrial site opposite the Bata Memorial Park.

At the same time volunteers will be in East Tilbury library to guide people around the centre.

Geoffrey, 98, and Jean, 96, will be returning to rekindle memories with daughter Janice, son Martin and other family members.

Janice says: "Our Dad is 98 and our Mum is 96 and they met at Bata's factory just after the war, so this will be a trip down memory lane for them. Mum was one of the Maryport Bata girls who came down to learn how to use the 'new' equipment and Dad was a Stanford lad.

"Although Mum was supposed to go back after six months, she met our Dad at Batas and they have recently celebrated their 74th wedding anniversary.

"I gather Dad first joined Bata in 1939. He originally worked for Shell after leaving school, but when war broke out it was decided that it was too dangerous for under 18s to work there because of the risk of explosions.

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"He had to find other employment in the area and that's when Dad came to work at the East Tilbury factory as a fabricator engineer, making lasts for Wellington boots. He says he was in Workshops 7/10, 7/11 and then 7/12.

"After the war he had to return to the employment he had before the war and he went back to Shell where he continued to work until he retired.

"They are looking forward to seeing what's left of the factory. Mum lived in the block now occupied by the Rigg-Milner doctor's surgery. My Dad's brother Robert Golding is one of the airmen commemorated on the Bata War Memorial."