An 87-year-old great grandad is laying claim to the title of Britain’s oldest paperboy.
Robert Farms delivers around 300 papers every fortnight for just £10.
He walks nearly three miles on a round which takes him several hours.
The sprightly pensioner, who turns 88 on April 18, has just taken up his new role with community paper ‘Spennymoor News’ in his Co Durham hometown.
He said: “I get the papers on a Friday afternoon, and you don’t have to deliver on a specific date, but I went out on Saturday morning.
“It is on a housing estate so you have to walk down the paths, it is not just walking up and down the street, and that is what takes time.
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“It is good exercise, it gets you out. I am much older than your average paperboy.
"When I found out I could be the oldest paperboy in the country I couldn’t believe it.
"But I suppose it makes sense given my age!”
Robert lost his beloved wife of 64 years, Rita, in 2019, and applied for voluntary roles to combat loneliness.
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“I started to help at a local food bank but that’s only on Fridays and I wanted something else,” he added.
“I saw the ad for a paper boy. Someone else got the first job but I got a call and the job was mine.”
Robert, who served with the RAF in the 1950s before he became a painter and decorator, has two children, Graham 65, and Rosamond, 63, five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
He said of his new role: “I didn’t think this would ever be something I would do, but I love it. It may be different when it is raining!”
Lee Brownson, co-editor of the Spennymoor News, was surprised when Robert applied for the job.
“I thought ‘Oh blimey! Do you really want it? But he has taken to it like a duck to water,” he said.
“It shows you’re never too old to be a paperboy.”
