Around 173 exhibition stalls were set up at the town’s annual retirement fair in The Grandstand at Ascot Racecourse, offering their products or services to people who no longer work.

Caroline Romero, a retirement consultant in Cookham, said: “Retirement’s a huge market. It’s one of the biggest-growing sectors of the economy.” Ms Romero helps people deal with life after work, with anything from filling in forms, to finding and moving properties.

She said: “I hand-held. I helped sell a couple’s house, they were 75 and they hadn’t bought or sold a house in 40 years.” She added: “The fair was brilliant, it’s very well organised and was fantastic for my company. We did very well and made a lot of new contacts.” But it’s not just disposable cash that the retired market has to offer, they also have the time. Rod Bird, was there with his Maidenhead- based company, Electric Landscape, selling photography courses. He said: “It was very good. I have done it a couple of times and always get a reasonable amount of interest.

“Retired people have the time and they are willing to pay for tuition.

“My target audience is the early retired, but I have people doing it from 13-87.” Around 1,550 people attended the event, organised by the charity Ascot Project.

Cllr David Hilton, chairman of Ascot Project, said: “We are indebted to the businesses which are making a social contribution with such amazing products.” “We put this show on so that people who are retired can find out everything there is to know about retirement.

“It’s for the visitors and the things that are offered can really change people’s lives.” About 35% of the stalls were commercial stalls, along with council services, charities and sports clubs.

There was also a cat walk, with clothes from M&Co, internet tutorials run by Barclays bank and a microwave demonstration.