'Why I am selling my art gallery in one of Yorkshire's most beautiful villages'

Richard and Polly Walls bought the Old School Art Gallery & Craft Centre in 2017, leaving their old lives in Wakefield behind and moving to the picturesque village of Muker in Swaledale.

“We had no knowledge of running an art gallery or any sort of retail business," says Richard, who had previously been Head of IT for Sky TV, while Polly ran a barber shop.

“We just had a dream of living and working in the Yorkshire Dales and beginning a new chapter. It was really triggered by a trek to Everest Base Camp, a trip I’d wanted to do when I was 40 but for various reasons put off for ten years.

"Personally I found it very tough as I didn't cope with the altitude very well, but it was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. You get a lot of time to reflect and one of the things I reflected on was that I didn’t want to put anything off again.”

Richard is a keen landscape photographer and one of the aims was to buy a gallery where he could not only show his work but be in an area to inspire his pictures.

"We looked at a lot of galleries in North Yorkshire and the Lake District and eventually we turned up at the Old School on a horrible rainy day and decided there and then that if we were going to do it this was going to be the place.

“With no knowledge of the area or experience of running an art gallery, the move was a leap in faith and major decision,” he says.

“We were moving away from friends, family and jobs, but when we arrived, we were immediately welcomed in by the community and anxiety over the move was quickly replaced with the confidence that we’d made the right decision. We soon realised we had made a good decision.”

The 19th century Old School had been a successful art gallery and craft shop for more than years. When the village school closed in the late 1970s, due to dwindling pupil numbers, Muker resident Barbara Laxton took it over and opened a tea shop and craft shop.

Barbara, who recently turned 96, still lives in the village. The next owners introduced an art gallery and then seven years ago Richard and Polly took over the reins.

“Polly was keen to sell handmade, UK crafts (glassware, pottery, jewellery) by independent makers and so a lot of our time away from the gallery has been spent at craft and art fairs, maker’s markets and exhibitions, searching for work to showcase - but all of it has to fit with the landscape of where we are.”

The old school playground has sculptures in but this is an area that Richard thinks the new owners could develop and expand.

"There is more we could have done with it but we run it as a lifestyle business – to a level that we are happy with but there is a lot of potential for people coming in.

"When we bought the gallery we wanted to create something unique, to offer works of art that people couldn’t really buy easily elsewhere and with the number of repeat customer we get we must have done something right.”

When they first moved to the area, as a photographer Richard was amazed by the landscape that surrounded the gallery, and especially with Kisdon Hill, which has led to a photography book, Kisdon Landscapes.

After eight enjoyable and successful years and with Richard approaching 60, they’ve decided to stick to their original plan and so the time has come to move on to their next adventure.

“Moving to Muker and running the Old School Art Gallery has enriched our lives, not necessarily monetarily, the gallery is profitable but run as a lifestyle business, but through new experiences, ambitions realised – playing in a band and becoming a full time landscape photographer- and especially through the friends we’ve made.

“Though we might be biased, we believe that there is something quite special and magical about Swaledale. As the writer Ella Pontefract aptly put it, “Whichever way you enter, and whatever season, you will feel it’s spell and be content”.”

The Walls will not be leaving the area - they bought a house nearby some years ago – but are keen to move ontot he next stage of their adventures and they believe the art gallery could be a great opporunity for the right person.

The gallery is the largest in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, showcasing a diverse and extensive range of work from over 50 independent artists and makers, all of whom share a passion for the iconic landscape and wildlife of Upper Swaledale.

The business ethos is that everyone is welcome. If you enjoy arts and crafts, then there will be something for you, whether it’s a greeting card, a mug or an oil painting.

Currently run as a life-style business, but there is much scope to enhance the business, through making more use of the large walled gardeand increasing turnover via on-line sales, especially in the low-season.

The gallery hosts regular exhibitions, at the moment it is holding the first Yorkshire Dales Landscape Photography Show which features (amongst others) Lizzie Shepherd (a past landscape of the year category winner), David Tarn, who’s been producing the Yorkshire Dales Calendar for the National Park since calendars were first invented, Swaledale based Paul Clark who specialises in astro photography and Joe Cornish, one of the UK’s best known landscape photographers, as well as Richard himself.

“The exhibition is a culmination of a love of the Dales landscape, a love of photography and love of the printed image.”

The exhibition runs until October 31.

Richard hopes that even thought they are leaving the gallery he will continue to make the Yorkshire Dales Landscape Photography Show an annual event.

The Old School House Muker is for sale for £475,000 from www.jrhopper.com