The ultimate challenge for a family business: funding an abbey
Every family business has to earn enough to support the members involved but perhaps the ultimate challenge is to have enough profit left to help finance the repair and maintenance of a twelfth century abbey.
This is the challenge facing the Burdon family at Jervaulx, between Masham and Middleham in Wensleydale, and, through a combination of investment, diversification and talent, they continue to rise to it magnificently.
Originally a farming family, the Burdons bought a tranche of the Jervaulx estate, including the abbey, in 1971. Following the death of Major Burdon in 1980, the family had to sell Jervaulx Hall and part of the estate to pay a significant inheritance tax bill.
Teamroom’s twentyfifth anniversary
The Major’s son, Ian, eventually bought back the land opposite the abbey and in 1993 built a tearoom which celebrates the twentyfifth anniversary of its opening in May 2019. Much of the credit for the tearoom’s longevity and success goes to his wife, Carol, but it is her daughter, Anna, who is now increasingly managing the business with help from her elder sister, Gayle.
Anna, who left a college course in 2010 to devote herself to the business, first learnt baking and later management skills from her mother.
Investment in the business saw the building of an extension to the tearoom, called the chapter house room, in 2014. It provides extra space not just for visitors to the tearoom but also for weddings and private parties. Sixty people can be seated there with a further 60 in the tearoom when needed.
“Regulations limit us to 10 weddings a year but they are going well and every pound of profit we make from them goes to support the repair and maintenance of the abbey,” said Anna. So do the contents of the abbey’s honesty box and injections of cash from the tearoom. Other family interests include a caravan and camp site in the hall’s former walled garden near the tearoom and a private car hire business, both run by Ian.
Combined talents
The combined talents of Anna and her mother have seen the tearoom win Deliciously Yorkshire Awards for Best Afternoon Tea in 2016 and Best Free-from Product in 2017. They are now writing a book of 40 baking recipes, In Their Footsteps, to be published in autumn 2018.
Meanwhile Gayle has also been winning awards, in her case for her wedding cakes. She created 90 in 2017 and expects to create even more in 2018. Her business, Where the Ribbon Ends, is based in the tearoom.
Jervaulx, the largest privately owned Cistercian abbey in the country, is clearly in safe hands as the third generation of the Burdon family continue to use their business acumen to cherish and maintain its romantic remains.
For more information on Jervaulx Abbey and Tearoom, call 01677 460391 or visit www.jervaulxabbey.com.
