Goathland Farmers' Market
From Coca-Cola to Collaboration and Community
Wonderful local food, good-humoured banter and a great sense of community
Goathland is a small village between Pickering and Whitby in the North York Moors National Park.
It has a few claims to fame. Goathland is a key station on the famous heritage railway across the moors.
It doubles as the village of Aidensfield in the long-running Heartbeat TV series, offers glorious walking country, Beck Hole and Mallyan Spout waterfall.
Lovers of good food and drink have two more reasons to visit: the monthly Goathland Farmers' Market and The Farmstead restaurant.
Goathland Farmers' Market
Coca-Cola and Goathland Farmers’ market might be at completely different ends of the food spectrum but when Andy Thompson and Fran Costelloe swapped life in London for the North York Moors, they found the sales and marketing skills they’d gained in the behemoth drinks' business came in useful when setting up the local market.
Andy, who was originally from Great Ayton, had spent 30-plus years in London working for various big name brands while Londoner Fran had also worked for Coca-Cola before following her passion for cooking, eventually working at Borough Market Cookery School.
Despite loving London, the pair decided they wanted a different balance in life; somewhere that had a slower pace and a strong rural community where they could also enjoy more leisure time outdoors.
There’s a sense with both Andy and Fran that ‘jumping in at the deep end’ doesn’t faze them which is probably a good thing as they swapped Ealing for a derelict dairy farm where the nearest shop was a two-mile walk along a country road.
For many, renovating Green End Farm, which lies between Beck Hole and Grosmont, into a home and three self-catering cottages might have been enough. For Andy and Fran though, there was a deeper sense of wanting to belong.
As many people who have moved into rural areas discover, volunteering is a good way to make friends and become part of the community. The Parish Council had been considering a farmers' market for a while but needed some one to run it...
Andy stepped forward.
Now an established fixture every third Saturday in the month from March to December, the farmers’ market is going from strength-to-strength and is a real showcase of local food and drink – regular stallholders include the Clucking Pig scotch eggs from Saltburn, the Whitby Gin Distillery and the Baytown Coffee Company. Fran, too, is a stallholder with Green End Farm Kitchen serving an array of homemade cakes and pastries.
Visitors are as likely to make a beeline for the market as locals do, and it has become more than just about championing local food producers; it’s a social occasion too where people gather and chat. The market’s success has even led to a similar one being set up in Robin Hood’s Bay, which is held every first Saturday of the month from April to December.
Andy and Fran might have wanted a different life when they gave up city living but that doesn’t mean it's any less busy!
