A popular farmshop has completed its latest expansion – the opening of a new café area.
Rishi performed the official opening ceremony for The Orangery at Mainsgill Farmshop, near Richmond.
Cutting a ribbon to declare the 5,000 sq ft extension of the café open, the MP said the new café area was a ‘top quality project’.
The extension replaces a semi-permanent structure erected during the Covid-19 pandemic. It comprises two additional seating areas which can be made one and will enable the business to extend its kitchen operation in the future.
Rishi praised Mainsgill’s owners, the Henshaw family, for their ambition in continually developing the business.
He said: “Mainsgill has become one of the best farmshops in the country thanks to the Henshaws’ continuing investment in their business which was, and still is at its heart, a family farm.
“The new extension has been completed to the highest standard and will be popular with local customers as well as the thousands of travellers using the A66.”
It is only 30 years since Andrew and Maria Henshaw first started selling their own produce from the 57-acre farm they had purchased as newly weds just two years previously.
The first purpose-built farmshop building opened in 2001 with major expansions and extensions taking place in 2006 and 2007. A two-storey retail granary building followed in 2014 and another two-storey extension in 2021.
Investment in the farm has also continued. The Henshaws now farm 1,200 acres to help meet the needs of the farmshop operation, particularly the butchery.
Andrew Henshaw said: “None of what we have achieved here would have been possible without the support of our loyal customers and suppliers, many of whom are local.
"Rishi has always been supportive of our business and we thank him for helping us mark another milestone in the Mainsgill story.”
