GEORGE and Pauline Wilson love their life in Barton – but their favourite part of it is each other.

The couple said they fell in love the minute they clapped eyes on each other.

And now, more than 50 years later, they are still as besotted as ever.

Mr and Mrs Wilson, who have lived in their home in Atkinson Close, off Fettiplace Road, for more than five decades, are two of the faces from the estate who have been picked to feature in an exhibition launched at the Barton Bash today.

Professional photographer John Cairns and filmmaker Mehran Mehraban, of Ignite Creative, have captured 16 of Barton’s best-known faces and immortalised them in prints to be shown at the Neighbourhood Centre, in Underhill Circus, from 11am.

Mr Cairns, of Headington, said: “Oxford is quite a transient place. Lots of people move on all the time.

“But Barton has a lot of people who have lived there for much of their lives and their children still live there.

“That’s what we wanted to capture with this exhibition. The community.”

Mr Wilson, 75, said he was smitten with his wife the minute he saw her walking around the sports fields close to Cowley Barracks, where he was stationed.

When the couple first moved to Barton they lived in a caravan, but soon moved to their current home, the house Mrs Wilson was born in.

They had three sons, Nigel, Richard, and Cyril, who all live nearby.

Mrs Wilson, 70, said: “The estate has changed a lot since we first came here. Many of the older people wouldn’t recognise it now. But you still see the same faces. We have a good life.

“My favourite thing about life in Barton is living here with the wife. We don’t drink or smoke. But we’re happy.”

Youth worker Jem Todd, of Fettiplace Road, is pictured in the allotment he tends to as part of his work with Innovista, a Littlemore-based Christian charity.

He said: “Barton is like no other part of Oxford and has one of the best senses of community out of anywhere I’ve lived or worked.”

The Barton Therapy Bash is at the Barton Neighbourhood Centre, in Underhill Circus, today between 11am and 5pm.

It will feature entertainment and craft workshops alongside heavily-subsidised therapies. Thousands of people are expected to attend.

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk l See our report in Monday’s Oxford Mail