A YORK family have uprooted and travelled to the other side of the world to start a new life in the sun.

Joan and Peter Buckle and their daughter's family Denise, Shane and Jessica Watkinson have opened up a hotel in Trinidad and Tobago and are now enjoying a life away from the rain and cold climate.

Joan is originally from the second most southern island in the Caribbean Sea, and left 35 years ago to train to be a nurse in York.

She later worked at Nestl Rowntree with her husband, Peter, from Thirsk, working in the Smarties and Polo departments.

The couple recently took early retirement and decided to return to Joan's roots along with their family.

The family have now built a small hotel called The Hummingbird, which has eight bedrooms, a bar and restaurant called Kiddo's.

Joan said: "Life for Peter and I is much slower now or as the locals would say 'laid back'.

"Tobago was made for the three S's - sun, sea and sand. It has a beautiful coral reef which can be visited in a glass bottom boat and the island also boasts a rain forest. We also enjoy average temperatures of 90 degrees. It has many beautiful white sandy beaches and crystal clear blue seas."

The couple first appeared in the Evening Press when they let John Warlock live in a caravan in their back garden in Pottery Lane, Heworth, for three years.

John hit the headlines in 1996 when management at York's Theatre Royal evicted him from his previous home, a shed he built in 1994 between the theatre and the De Grey Rooms.

And a row blew up between both parties when the Buckles asked him to move out so they could sell their house before moving abroad.

Updated: 10:20 Saturday, August 11, 2001