The Week in the Life column with Keith Tordoff

It hasn’t exactly been barbecue weather but our two famous butchers have still been kept busy. People come to buy the famous Pateley pork pies from far and wide including police officers on their driver training courses.
Paul Kendall is pictured outside his shop in Pateley.Paul Kendall is pictured outside his shop in Pateley.
Paul Kendall is pictured outside his shop in Pateley.

This week North Yorkshire Police officers took part in a charity cycle ride to raise funds for the charity Mind in memory of a colleague who recently passed away.

To help give the riders sustenance Kendall’s Farm Butchers provided them with two large oblong pork pies, one with ‘Acky’ baked on the top of it and the other with his service number ‘1066’ on – Acky’s family, friends and colleagues said he would have appreciated the kind gesture.

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Kendall’s pies on Saturday will be helping provide energy to 25 police officers who are cycling from the Police Treatment Centre (PTC) in Auchterarder in Scotland to the PTC in Harrogate in over 24 hours to help raise much needed funds for the charity.

Paul Kendall and his wife Helen this week will be in London at the House of Lords no less representing the North of England as the finalists in the Butchers of the Year awards run by the Countryside Alliance.

At the awards also known as the ‘Rural Oscars’ on Wednesday in the House of Lords the Best Butcher in the country will be announced. Paul is a deserved finalist and will hopefully be the outright winner. Whatever the outcome of the awards it will be a great occasion for Paul and Helen as they are also being greeted the day before by the Right Honourable Julian Smith MP at the Houses of Parliament.

Paul this week also celebrates the 30th year of working full time in his butcher’s business, although he has worked there for 40 having done ten years alongside his dad whilst still at school!

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Paul says only another forty years to go! Great guy, great achievement and oh how the years roll on by.

June is a busy month for anniversaries in my family, with our wedding anniversary and my son’s birthday.

I met Gloria 46 years ago on what was the first day of us both joining Leeds City Police and as they say ‘the rest is history’! Like Paul Kendall – only 40 years to go.

Arriving in Pateley Bridge in the 1990s and entering the retail world of running a shop with Gloria on the High Street I joined the Nidderdale Chamber of Trade and it was not long before I was elected president, as it was then – (chair these days) – you know the scenario volunteers one step forward and before I knew it the others had stepped back!

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Only joking as I really was honoured to be representing members of the business community just as I am today as chair, and have since 2014 when I once again took on the voluntary role.

Back in the late 1990s something called the internet came along and although not using or knowing the first thing about computers I had an inkling that it might be good for the community and businesses.

The www.nidderdale.co.uk website was launched by the Nidderdale Chamber of Trade for the benefit of the community and its business members.

Today the website is still number one worldwide on Google for people searching for Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale.

This year it is 20 years since the website went live – and the Nidderdale Chamber of Trade has been established for over 50 years – only 40 years to go!