Mark and Alan Archer, who run Red Bank Farm in Bolton-le-Sands, have opened family-run Archers Cafe at the farm, which uses home-made produce including lamb and dairy products from their own farm.

The brothers have already been diversifying in other ways in recent years – the farm has been selling its own-produced salt marsh lamb for the last couple of years, as well as having a six-acre campsite for tents and motor homes which overlooks the Lake District.

The cafe was officially opened by Morecambe MP Geraldine Smith last month, and trade has been building up since then through word of mouth.
"About five years ago we were on the borderline of whether we could carry on because the farm was losing money," Mark said. "But we have gradually turned it around.

"We have upgraded the campsite, we are selling the meat, and the cafe is the next step in trying to maintain the business."

Mark and Alan have run Red Bank Farm in partnership for five years, although the farm has been in the family since their grandfather took it over in the 1940s, when the family moved into the area from a farm in Yorkshire.