University of Chester Alumni Love Stories

Do you remember Rid and Ingrod? 

If so, you may be pleased to hear that when Rod Cox and Ingrid, nee Miles, met at Chester in 1965 it was the start of what would prove to be a long and loving relationship. (Rid and Ingrod were our nicknames)

Rod thought that the Ingrid V. Miles signing up for club activities was Swedish! So when he found me in his lecture group he rushed back to halls saying, “I’ve found her!” Little did he realise that he was taking on a Yorkshire lass! Guess the blonde pigtails and slender figure did the trick!!

We left Chester in 1968, were married in 1971, had successful teaching careers and raised three children. Grandparents to four beautiful children.  

56 years and still going strong! Thanks to Chester College!

Rod and Ingrid Cox 1968

I met my husband Mike at Chester in 1998. I was a first year BEd student and he was in his third year of an English/French degree. We both volunteered for the Students Union. He was the treasurer, and I was the Women’s officer. We became friends but didn’t fall in love until I was in my final year, despite some earlier efforts on his part! The rest, as they say, is history! We married in 2007 and have three lovely children together. We haven’t moved too far away as we have made our home in Shrewsbury.

Not the most romantic of stories, but we do have Chester to thank for us meeting!

Becky Houghton (nee Darter) 2002

Having finished my degree at Cambridge I had to find a job and thought that, as I'd always enjoyed teaching in a Sunday School back home, maybe teacher training might be a good way to while away a year. Most colleges were full by that stage (July) but Chester had just validated a PGCE course so were desperate for students. David Vernon Hughes interviewed me, and I was in.

In those days you were allocated accommodation, so I found myself at Mrs. Bailey's at 67, Gladstone Avenue. And Mrs. Bailey had a daughter, Janet. For that year I tagged along to various events that Jan and her Mum attended but my 'home' girlfriend kept a close eye on me and visited frequently. At the end of the year's course, I left Chester to teach back home in SW London. Six weeks later I popped over to catch up and have a coffee with Jan and her Mum at Heathrow airport as they flew off to Turkey on holiday, and casually spur-of-the-moment suggested that on their return Jan might like to come to my home for a couple of days and I could take her to visit Windsor. So, two weeks later on a Friday I collected Jan from Heathrow (Mrs. Bailey caught the train back to Chester), old girlfriend was ditched on Saturday, we married two years later, got a house in Saughall just outside Chester, and stayed married for 46 years till cancer took her from me in 2021.

Apparently, on the first day we met, Jan went back to work after lunch and told her colleagues "I've just met the man I'm going to marry". I hadn't a clue!

I have a lot to thank Chester for!!

Dennis Holman (PGCE 1972), now Professor Dennis Holman (staff 1983-2011) retired.

I was a student at Chester College from 1968-72.  When I arrived, I had a boyfriend in Germany who I saw only intermittently but that stopped me from entertaining the idea of cultivating another romance at Chester.  However, that relationship finished in the summer of 1970.  I never expected to find love at college, but I was proved wrong.  A young man who was a year below me took a shine to me and it’s fair to say he pestered me all through my final year!  I got a job in my hometown of Croydon, and I was staggered when he announced he too had secured a job there.  He was from the north-west.  Once we were both teaching it didn’t take long for us each to realise, we had fallen in love.  However, it was not to be. In the end I went off to Germany to teach English and the opportunity to develop the relationship petered out.

I always knew that he was my soul mate and I think he knew that too.
Susan Hector 1972