A couple who ploughed their life savings into creating a rural coffee shop are having to quit their dream business because the landlord wants younger, more upmarket customers.

Duncan and Diana Davis have been told that their lease for the Kirkharle Coffee Shop, near Colwell, Northumberland, will not be renewed in June as landowner and former county High Sheriff John Anderson wants to run the cafe himself.

Mr and Mrs Davis, who have lived in rented accommodation in nearby Capheaton for 25 years, were told they would have to quit late last year.

They built up the business over five years and now employ 22 people, including seven members of their family, with an annual turnover of around £160,000.

Mr Davis, 53, said they felt betrayed by a man who has watched them struggle to make a viable business.

Last night Mr Anderson said he wanted to expand the business and attract younger more professional customers to the coffee shop, which is part of the Kirkharle Courtyard complex of businesses and shops, which he set up with a £250,000 grant from the Government.

Regulars at the coffee house say they are shocked by the news but other shopkeepers at the Courtyard complex felt their businesses would have a better chance of survival without Mr and Mrs Davis.

The couple put £33,000 into creating the business and say they will now have to build a new one up from scratch elsewhere.

Mr Davis said: "We have struggled to build up this business for the last five years, this is our livelihood."

Mrs Davis, 50, added: "Our lives have been turned upside down."

In a recorded conversation between Mr Anderson and Mr Davis two years ago, the former sheriff said: "A tramp's pound is every bit as meaningful to you as the Queen's pound, but a tramp is unlikely to buy a bed or a bangle outside.

"We are not getting the people we want, we have to go for a slightly younger person.

"You get a young barrister with his girlfriend, they are more likely to go out and buy a wonderful dining room table that would look super in their Quayside flat."

But Mr Davis, a former self-employed photographer, said yesterday: "This is a day time trade so a lot of our customers are retired people. They are so lovely - these are the right sort of people."

Yesterday Mr Anderson, 56, of Little Harle Towers, Kirkharle, who was unaware the conversation had been recorded, agreed he had used the tramp/queen comparison.

However, he denied the Courtyard concept was ageist or elitist.

He said: "We welcome everybody at the Courtyard irrespective of their social standing, age or background, but market research has indicated that we need to target professionals who have the inclination and the money to buy the products."

Mr Anderson was backed by some of the other nine businesses at the development, which include furniture makers and jewellery shops.

Jewellery designer Alan Harrison 65, who runs Frederick Alan Designs, said: "The idea behind the Courtyard was that all the businesses would work together and unfortunately that has not happened with the owners of the coffee house. Mr Anderson taking over is for the best."

Dennis Kilgallon, of Red Dust Ceramics, said that the scheme needed Mr Anderson to take it forward and said from the point of view of the other businesses it would be better if the couple were not there.

Mr Anderson said the row may now be the subject of legal proceedings after the couple erected banners at the entrance to the site criticising him.