DOUBLE TROUBLE!

What can you do with a mobile farm in a bus, permanently halted by the pandemic? Time for a second conversion!

Perhaps you are old enough to remember the 1970s children’s TV programme, Here Come the Double Deckers? No? Just us then! The premise of the show was a gang of kids using an old double-decker London bus in a scrapyard as a den.

Sounds like fun, right? Well, for David and Gillian Rivers, the idea of having their very own double-decker became a reality in 2009, although in their case (and this would work as a TV show format in its own right), they converted it into the world’s first double-decker mobile farm.

Fast forward a few years and the Farmyard Flyer was to go through another transformation, as the couple faced the economic reality of a mobile business that had come to a permanent halt as a result of the pandemic.

Undeterred, they decided to use the time to take the bus off-road and convert it into a holiday let, complete with luxurious double beds, shower facilities and a fully fitted kitchen.

David explains how they came to create the mobile farm. “Gillian was a lecturer in agriculture at Durham University and had always wanted to farm, so when we got together, we decided to buy this small farm outside Darlington. Originally, we had acquired it with the intention of opening an educational centre. But the access off a dual carriageway was considered unsuitable for a school, so we had to come up with another plan.”

BUYING THE BUS