A married couple have said “If you enjoy something, why stop?” as they celebrate a combined 35 years as volunteers at Southampton City Farm.

Rose and Den Ray, aged 79 and 82, are the longest serving volunteers at Southampton City Farm, with Rose having volunteered there for 19 years, before Den joined his wife on the farm 16 years ago.

“If you enjoy doing something, why stop?” said Rose, with couple also celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary on Monday, June 2.

“I retired from work at 60 and used to live right across the road from the farm.

“I think I just walked over one day and said I’d like to volunteer, and I’ve been helping out with the gardening one day a week ever since.”

In contrast, Den helps maintain the site and can often be found cleaning the drains.

“We’ve seen the farm grow over time,” said Rose.

“Now there’s volunteers of all ages and people are much younger, but we enjoy getting out and spending time with people.

“We also enjoy helping out at open days, we were at one last weekend and more than 1,000 people turned up, so it’s great to see the farm thriving.

“Without volunteers the farm couldn’t function, so it’s great that so many people take pride in it.”

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Speaking to the Echo, Southampton City Farm manager, Tom Kitcher, said: “We love celebrating our incredible volunteers and their contribution to the farm.”

He added: “Den and Rose have volunteered for a combined 35 years on the farm. Den joins us every week and helps not only with the maintenance of the site but also does all our drains for us.

“Rose helps in our garden, weeding, sowing seeds, planting, and so much more. As well as this, they both are always at our open days, usually seen selling plants and pumpkins. We’re grateful for everything they do.”

With no plans on stopping anytime soon, the husband and wife duo, who live in Nursling said: “We love spending time on the farm, we wouldn’t have been doing it for this long if we didn’t.”