A PENSIONER hopes to reunite with a long-lost sweetheart he last saw 60 years ago.

Tony Adams has never forgotten a girl he met at a dance in Abingdon, who he regrets cutting contact with after weeks of courting.

The 79-year-old widower now lives in Derby, but has made the trip to Abingdon countless times to try to track her down.

He said he wants to explain why he never wrote back to her; a decision he has lived with on his conscience for decades.

Grandfather-of-seven Mr Adams said: "I want to still her mind and say it wasn't that I didn't care for her.

"I thought it best to leave it - I couldn't see how it would work, with the distance. I have regretted that many times."

Mr Adams lived in Doncaster but was in Culham training with the Territorial Army during summer 1957.

He and a friend found a dance hall in Abingdon where he met a 19-year-old woman - the same age as him - who introduced herself as Bertha Williams.

The retired teacher said: "She was a lovely, kind girl; tall with fair hair.

"Each evening we went for tea and coffee at a place at the back of the museum in Market Place, where there was a jukebox."

Mr Adams visited her shortly after his two-week training, surprising the Bury Street resident at her chemist workplace in Stert Street.

He said: "She took me to see her aunty and uncle and the following day took me to see her mother and father."

But seeds of doubt were sewn by a mystery man at Abingdon railway station.

He said: "I have no idea who he was - he said 'don't hurt her'. I was taken aback.

"When I waved goodbye to her, I started thinking about how often I could see her."

He was studying for an apprenticeship in heating and plumbing, which was set to take up most of his time for the next two years.

He said: "I couldn't foresee how we could make arrangements. It took four days to get there on the train. I brought to mind what that chap had said. I didn't think it would be fair to her.

"She wrote to me and then wrote again, upset. I didn't know how to approach it."

Mr Adams went on to live his life, marrying his beloved late wife who passed away two years ago.

But he has never forgotten his short-lived romance.

He said: "Her situation could be completely different now. But time is getting on and and it would be nice to see her again."

Anyone with information can email sgrubb@nqo.com or call 01865 425429.