Thanks to Chris Sadler, the Principal of Kirklees College, and his Executive team for a very warm welcome and a very informative visit last week.
Good training and education for our young people is crucial in the current economic climate and it was great to see the College’s new Waterfront site taking shape too.
Jason recently met Christina from the Netherton based Lorna Young Foundation to see the results of one of the ventures they’ve been supporting:
The Oromo coffee business was set up by Ethiopian refugees and their FairTrade coffee is for sale in the FairTraders cooperative in Holmfirth.
Posted in Businesses, Charity, Holmfirth, Netherton, Photos
Today I joined Ian Balmforth, MD of Bolling Coffee, for a tour of their roastery in Meltham:
Their coffee beans come from as far afield as Ethiopia and Bolivia and, as well as roasting the beans for their increasingly popular Grumpy Mule brand, they’re also roasting for the likes of Fortnum and Masons.
Posted in Businesses, Meltham, Photos
Well done to the Safdar family and their many friends who raised hundreds of pounds for the Pakistan Flood Relief effort with a charity car wash at their Lockwood Premier store on Saturday.
Posted in Charity, Fundraising, Photos
Just a couple of days after Ian and Becky showed me round their picturesque vineyard overlooking Holmbridge, they are now celebrating top awards for their wine.
Their rosé won highly commended and their white won a bronze award out of 160 English wines. It’s a great start and, with a new wine tasting visitors centre and a swanky Eco lodge on the horizon, the Holmfirth Vineyard is also set to become a major tourist attraction.
Posted in Businesses, Holmfirth, Photos, Tourism
Thanks to the members of the Huddersfield Canal Society, the Inland Waterways Association and British Waterways who treated me to a trip on the Marsden shuttle boat on Friday:
We took the boat from Marsden up to the Standedge tunnel and then James kindly showed me around the visitors’ centre.
Sean Berry showed me round the JWQ site at Crosland Hill last Friday:
I never knew the site, which employs 100 people, was so large due to the landscaping. The Yorkshire sandstone, which has extracted from the area since around 1850, has been used at the Kingsgate shopping centre in Huddersfield, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Winter Gardens in Sheffield.
Posted in Businesses, Crosland Moor, Photos
Last week, Jason visited Souten & Agyemang in Netherton to meet local optometrists and discuss eye care issues:
I had a really interesting visit to Drake Extrusion Ltd in Golcar this afternoon.
Colin Porteus, the Managing Director, showed me the production line of the plastic fibres. They are primarily used in the manufacture of carpets but a more recent application has seen them being added to the paper in teabags.
Posted in Businesses, Golcar, Photos
