Wolds Village: Yorkshire farm tourism complex closes tearoom, shop and art gallery after 'complete battering'

Chris and Sally Brealey confirmed last week that they are closing Wolds Village’s tearoom, restaurant, gift shop and art gallery but will continue to run the guest accommodation at Manor Farm in Bainton, between Driffield and Beverley.

Sally’s family opened the tearoom at the Georgian farm, which was once a hostelry and even a jail, in 1995 and they have gradually added to the complex. Her father Robert Holmes was a chief engineer at a nearby smelting works known for his passion for grandfather clocks, and she and her husband took the business over after he died.

A statement on Wolds Village’s Facebook page read: “After 27 years, we have made the difficult decision to downsize Wolds Village further. We will be closing the tearoom, shop and gallery from the end of September. Our last day trading will be Saturday 24 September.

“We will continue to run the hotel, which will be open seven days a week offering hotel residents dinner, bed and breakfast. We will also be able to offer small lunchtime parties and afternoon functions with private use of the premises.

“This decision has been a hard one to make. We have had a complete battering over the past few years with Covid and now the cost of living crisis. The time has come for us to try something new in order to survive, by keeping the business small with only the two of us working in it.

“Thank you for all your support over the years and please do let us know if we can host any of your special events in the future.

“Thank you to everyone who has called in or messaged us over the last couple of weeks, we are truly humbled by so many stories of love that so many of you share with Wolds Village. It seems we were more than just a venue to so many people with different generations of the same family visiting through the years. It feels very sad to close the door. Thanks to my darling Mum who started WV with us back in 1995, and at the age of 81 got stuck into the washing up for the past two weeks as we were much busier than we had been all summer!”

The couple confirmed in a further interview with the Hull Daily Mail that they had struggled to recruit staff post-Covid as many people no longer wanted to work anti-social hours. At its peak, the business employed 40 staff, but this has reduced to just four with the Brealeys working 70-hour weeks themselves. Their energy bill had doubled in the past year and biomass prices have also risen.

The farm has a ghoulish history, as in the 18th century, when some of the buildings traded as an inn, prisoners would be kept in makeshift cells in the cellar before the local village ‘assizes’ – trials – would be held.