Best-selling writer Amanda Owen is swapping her shepherd’s staff for scissors to officially open Newcastle Building Society’s new branch in the iconic Yorkshire Dales town of Hawes.
Amanda, author of the Yorkshire Shepherdess series and star of Channel 5’s Our Yorkshire Farm programme, will be cutting the ribbon at the Society’s new community branch in the Upper Wensleydale Community Office in the town’s Market Place as part of its official opening event.
Free refreshments will also be on offer at the event, which begins at 1pm on Friday 7 February.
The Society originally announced plans to launch a new community branch in the town, which was about to be left without banking facilities, back in July after working closely with the late North Yorkshire County Councillor John Blackie to develop ideas for how face-to-face financial services might best be provided in the town.
The project has been developed as part of a wider Society strategy for creating a step change in how it delivers its services to different towns and communities, including re-imagining its locations and adapting its approach in places such as Hawes to suit local needs.
The Society is more than two thirds of the way through an ambitious branch improvement programme which involves work on new or improved facilities being carried out in every part of its existing branch network and new branches being opened in a number of locations across the North East and North Yorkshire.
Three new jobs have been created as part of the opening of the new Hawes branch.
Amanda Owen lives with her husband Clive and nine children on a remote 2,000-acre hill farm at Ravenseat in Swaledale where she looks after a flock of around 1,000 sheep.
She has chronicled the family’s lives in three best-selling books, as well as through different television series and photography of the ever-changing Dales countryside.
Stuart Miller, customer director at Newcastle Building Society, said: “Providing easy access to face-to-face financial services and advice is a key part of the contribution we make to the sustainability of communities across the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire, and we’re extremely pleased to be seeing our plans coming to fruition in Hawes.
“While many other financial institutions have been pulling out of communities like Hawes, we have been continuing to invest heavily in enhancing and upgrading a modern branch network that sits right at the heart of our operations, and have plans to do even more this year.
“John Blackie’s drive and commitment was absolutely central to making this project a reality – we think he would like what’s been created in the community that he championed for so many years and he will very much be in our thoughts on our official opening day.
“We’re hoping to see as many local people as possible at our opening event, and we’re especially pleased to have Amanda who is such a strong advocate of everything that’s great about the Yorkshire Dales cutting the ribbon for us.”