Colour & Interior Design in the Home

We welcome Victoria from Victoria Rose Interiors to our showroom on Wednesday 3rd October.

Victoria will use her experience as a Farrow and Ball consultant to provide top tips on how to paint your home and how colour can transform a room.

Soft furnishings specialist Claire Hudson will assist Victoria in creating stunning interior designs specifically for your home.

Fifteen minute slots are available from 6.30pm onwards. Light refershments will be served.

£10 per person and pre booking only. Call us for details.

Egton Show

Well we hitched up the show trailer and headed up to Egton for the last of the summer shows.

On arrival at the show field we found the usual scene of tractors pulling exhibitors on to the ground, however there was hope, the sun was shining and with a fresh breeze we looked set for a dry day.

Our stand was comfortably located between the judges luncheon tent and Wrights traditional candy floss and brandy snaps stall. We thought we had had an early start leaving home at 6.00 am but our sweet toothed neighbours left at 4.45 am.

By 9 am we had already heard 'My AGA is over 50 years old and still going strong' along with the 'Now how much are AGA's these days'.

Egton is one of the most traditional shows in North Yorkshire and we love our pilgrimage to the purple heather clad moors.

Apparently there are over 120 stand holders on a waiting list to attend this little show and we can see why.

 

This will have been our 25th year of attending, and one of the few where the wellies were actually put away in the boot of the car before the day was over!

Some of the photos taken show the local hunt and beagle pack in the parade ring, the vintage vehicles on parade, some of the showing classes.

A clutch of Shetlands- we wondered what the collective noun was for Shetland Ponies. We came up with a Shed Load of Shetlands!

Finally an amazing sunset as we drove home after a full and fun day spreading the word of AGA and associated wares!

Our Life on a Trade Stand!

We have been out and about over the last three weeks attending local agricultural shows. Herewith the diary of a trade stand holder, summer 2012.

Driffield Show

The familiar rain sodden picture greeted us on the morning of Driffield Show. However sometimes the clouds can be misleading. By 10am the sun was making a strenuous effort to peep through and a brisk breeze was drying the ground up nicely. 

As one of the (if not THE) biggest one-day shows, Driffield was not going to succumb to the wet weather conditions. With a chalky well-drained show field the organisers gave everybody a much-needed opportunity to exhibit their wares.

These 'wares' were quiet diverse in their make up. From willow weaving and bread milling to terrier racing, gun dog training, falconry and polo. These events were successfully shown to the delight of many (including us!). We met old customers and new and passed much time reminiscing about the benefits of having a cast iron heat storage cooker at the heart of the home. Our good friend Bev Madden of Mrs Madden Makes was also there displaying her lovely aprons and other house wares. These aprons can be custom made to suit personal requirements and they make a great gift.

A great day was had by all and we even managed to pack every thing away in the dry, ready for Malton Show.

Malton Show

Now we were being spoilt! A warm and sunny day bought the crowds out in the lovely setting of Scampston Park. We were lucky enough to enjoy the livestock parade, a vintage tractor parade, the sheep dog trials and a myriad of horse showing classes. There were rows of vintage farm machinery, all of them in working order, so much so that by the end of the day even our heartbeat’s had synchronised with the 'chug chug chug' of the steam engines located opposite our stand. We met the lovely ladies from the regional W I and we are hoping to link up with them for some future events at our upstairs cookery school. Watch our web site for further developments.

 Ryedale Show

Probably our favourite show of the summer, Ryedale show is always well attended and stylishly run. Our stand drew many admirers and several small children wanting to make a 'house' out of it. A successful day was had by all!

Now back to the shop to sell some AGA’s!

Mrs M at Driffiend Show

Here are a few photos of our lovely stand at Driffield Show. The Mrs Madden aprons made it very colourful indeed!

Showcasing some of our lovely Mrs Madden aprons!

From bespoke aprons and pinnies to bags and cushions, each Mrs Madden Makes item is individually styled and handmade using upcycled linens combined with contemporary fabrics.

Each apron is uniquely designed - taking inspiration from Mrs Madden's cottage garden.

With quirky slogans like ‘Do my buns look big in this’ Mrs Madden Makes aprons have been a huge hit with ‘original’ Calendar Girl, Angela Knowles-Baker.

Prices start at £ 24.95

Why not pop into the shop and see them for yourself!

Beginners Guide to AGA Cooking

We're hosting one of our popular 'Beginners Guide to AGA Cooking' courses on Wednesday evening (25th July).

It starts at 7.15pm and is complimentary but you must call to book your place !

We look forward to hearing from you.

The Rain in Yorkshire Stays Mainly on the Show Ground!

Ten days ago we were feverishly setting our stall out at the Harrogate home of the Great Yorkshire Show.

We always take a 'live' AGA with us. This takes our engineers two days to build and commission. Normally that work could be done in a day in a customers house, however leveling up a base take a little more time when you are effectively working in the middle of a field. Then there is man handling nearly half a tonne of cast iron on to our stand. Not an easy task at the best of times. In pouring rain it and sodden ground it becomes even more challenging. We have been doing the Great Yorkshire Show for over 20 years now and have rarely had such tricky conditions in which to set up.

Last Monday saw all the cookware being unpacked and put on display. We had cleverly devised a washing line arrangement to display all the Tottering by Gently Hob Hats.

Bev Maddens fingers were worked ragged in producing some fantastic hand embroidered aprons which you could see hanging around the sides of our tented stand. We had a beautiful ex demo Falcon 1000 deluxe on the stand at a super sale price too. (That sold pretty quickly on Tuesday morning).  All in all we were feeling pretty pleased with our little 'shop on the Show Ground'.

We stayed the night in Harrogate on the Monday to get a quick start on Tuesday morning, to beat the crowds we thought. It was more a case of beating the rain as it turned out. With a misty start and a rather slippy arrival to the parking across Crimple Golf Course we opened our stand for business. All was going reasonably well for most of the day until about 4pm when the heavens opened. And it rained and rained and rained! The really heavy wet sort of rain (is there any other sort?!?) The horse classes were immediately cancelled from then onwards but we hope the rest of the show would go on. At 6.30pm a trade stand official came around with a very official looking letter, announcing that the Show had to be cancelled. We were all disappointed on many fronts, the effort and expense of attending, the loss of trade and the general poor economic climate made for rather a fed up team.

However, a nice warm shower, supper out and a bottle of wine and we were all back in action on Wednesday morning taking everything down and packing into the vans.

The only thing we had to wait for was the AGA to cool down. To be honest it was so useful having it working as it was drying all our wet weather gear after every downpour!

Thanks must go to our great team, Claire and Guy for helping with the set up and pack up plus our two temporary student helpers Alex and Georgina, who all coped ably in difficult circumstances.

Thanks must also go to all at the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, they had no choice in the end but to cancel- but not before they had put up a very gallant effort. Those involved were creative and bold in their attempts to beat the dreadful conditions. I wouldn't have wanted to be the person to make the difficult decision to cancel the event. Furthermore contractually they are under no obligation to refund monies but I understand they are aiming to pay back approximately the stand hire for the two non-running days. This is very much appreciated by us exhibitors.

Lets hope next year we will all be back with a bigger and better show!