A new start after 60: ‘We both like gardening – so we became farmers’

Bob and Ann Paton thought they were just moving to their dream country home - until they had the idea to turn its six acres into a small farm

We didn't intend to be farmers," Bob Paton says. In their 50s, he and his wife, Ann, envisaged one more move". They lived in Newcastle upon Tyne and had a checklist for their dream house: Northumberland, stone-built, a bit of character and a reasonable garden," Bob says.

The place they found ticked every box but one. Instead of a reasonable garden, it had six acres. As they walked the grounds, Bob turned to Ann and said: We could turn this into a small farm."

Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?