A ‘FIT and active’ Welshpool farmer died after a fall down stairs at his home, a coroner has ruled.

John Harold Breeze, 80, died at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) on Tuesday, May 7 after he was found at the bottom of his stairs by his wife on Monday, May 6.

He was described as fit and active with no health conditions by Shropshire coroner’s officer Michael Caesar-Hondon at Shirehall, in Shrewsbury, on Tuesday, May 14.

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The court heard that Mr Breeze, who was still working on the family’s Moel-Y-Garth farm in Welshpool, got up to use the toilet, meaning he needed to pass the top of his stairs.

Around midnight, his wife heard a loud bang and found him unresponsive and called an ambulance.

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Mr Caesar-Hondon told coroner John Ellery that she believed Mr Breeze had blacked out.

At RSH, it was found that he had a subdural haematoma and doctors advised palliative care, and he died the next day.

Mr Ellery concluded his death was accidental.