A 21 year old Northam girl, Miss Annie Glover, vowed that she would never marry anyone younger than herself. ‘Of course you won’t’ her ’21 year old’ boyfriend, Mr Ernest E Copp, a mason, assured her.

They were married within a short while, but Miss Glover did not realise until she signed the register at Northam Parish Church, on her wedding day, that her husband was, in fact, only 19. This happened 50 years ago ‘but I forgave him long ago’ Mrs Annie Copp, now aged 71, of 3 East View, Meddon Street, Bideford, told a Bideford Gazette reporter.
Bideford Quay front proved a romantic spot for them, for that is where they first met one afternoon. At the time Mrs Copp was a domestic worker and one of 11 children of the Glover family living in Honey Street, Northam. Mr Copp also came from a large family, being the eldest of 10, and lived just a few yards away from his present address, at Strawberry Cottage, Meddon Street.
Strawberry Cottage is at the very end of a cul-de-sac off Meddon Street. It has no name but it could be called ‘Copp’s Close’ for at one time there were four generations of the Copp family living almost next door to each other. At the moment Mr L Copp, youngest brother of Mr Ernest Copp, lives at Strawberry Cottage.
Mr and Mrs E Copp’s only son, William John, lives practically next door to them at East View Bungalow, next door to which is Ivy Cottage, the home of their daughter, Mrs W Buckley. There is one other daughter, Mrs F Kemp, who lives at Bridgeland Street. There are altogether six grandchildren and two great grandchildren, the latter being children of Mrs Kemp’s daughter, who is married to Mr Terry Sherborne, son of Cllr T W Sherborne. A few doors away at Prior’s Cottage lives Mr E Copp’s sister, Gertrude.
The full Gazette article is dated 27 February 1959.