A couple who were divorced 26 years ago are to remarry in a romantic St Valentine's Day ceremony.

Allan Beckie and Sylvia Jones tied the knot first time around at Keighley Parish Church, in 1970, but the marriage did not work out.

Now love has been rekindled and the couple -- who have both been remarried and divorced since their original nuptials -- will once again exchange vows. Among the friends from Keighley attending the ceremony at Lancaster register office will be Pauline Harrison, a bridesmaid at the 1970 wedding.

Care assistant Sylvia, 52, says she and 54-year-old Allan are confident that this time around the relationship will work.

"We were quite young when we married the first time and we just drifted apart," she says.

"Now we are older and wiser and getting on better than ever. We enjoy the same things."

The couple first met through groups of friends in Keighley and dated for two years before marrying.

Allan -- from Crossflatts -- worked as a TV and radio engineer, and Sylvia -- who lived at Thwaites Brow -- was a slipper finisher at Peter Blacks. They set up home at Riddlesden and had a daughter, Julie Anne -- now 30 -- but following their separation and subsequent divorce the couple had little contact with each other.

It was at a party held 18 months ago by Sylvia's sister, Rosemary, to celebrate her 30th wedding anniversary, that they were reunited.

"We just hit it off straight away," says Sylvia.

"Gradually, we saw more of each other and things just developed. In November 1999 Allan took me on my first overseas holiday, to Lanzarote, and last October we got engaged."

Sylvia adds: "Everything has happened naturally and at its own pace. We are very happy.

"At first Julie was not sure how to take it all. She has never known her mum and dad to be together because she was very young when we got divorced, but she seems to have accepted it."

The couple -- who have a 22-months-old grand-daughter, Caitlin -- will be setting up home in Morecambe where Sylvia has lived since 1986.