Overview

A visitor to Richmond might not realise what a diverse collection of high quality businesses the town has.

Up on the hill, the Trading Estate sits above the town. Here you will find a diversity of businesses: mechanics, builders, plumbers, trade supplies, furniture sellers and builders, cheese manufacturer, bicycle builders, vets, electrical engineers.

The well-known boot manufacturer, Altberg, whose superlative boots are now worn by the UK and Danish armed forces are located here. Customers travel from far-and-wide for a fitting.

Down in the Town Centre is a thriving collection of independent retailers, along with accountants, solicitors and estate agents.

The Citysecret, provides bespoke software solutions to financial services companies and its Academy, a technology based training company, offers courses that are attended by local, national and international delegates.

A Thriving Community

Richmond is also home to a thriving community of freelance workers in a variety of fields, such as graphic design, web design, marketing and photography.

All this is helped by Richmond's excellent transport links, with the A1 and A66 four miles away, and the East Coast Mainline stations at Darlington or Northallerton around 15 miles away.

Given the quality of life that Richmond residents enjoy it is not difficult to encourage people to relocate to the area to join the talented, skilled and qualified people already living in the area.

Mocha Chocolate Shop

Dennis and Elizabeth Graves

We set up a new retail business in Richmond 4 years ago. We have received excellent support from the various Richmondshire District Council departments including Planning, Environmental Health and Licensing. We were also fortunate to receive a Small Business grant that enabled us to expand our business.

Richmond is a great place to work - our customers are from all walks of life and include seasonal visitors to the area and military personnel from Catterick Garrison.

The unique setting of the Georgian market place, Richmond Castle, the Georgian Theatre and the two museums as well as the stunning Yorkshire countryside is a marvellous backdrop for any business.

The Richmond community spirit is alive and kicking and there's plenty of advice and support available for new businesses.

Irvings Sales and Lettings

Margi Irving

For us, working In Richmond, which is also our home, is a delight. There is a real sense of community, trust and honesty. We deal a lot with sub- contractors, and other businesses, all local, and without whom our business would not survive. We now have a very strong team of professionals who support our business behind the scenes, and without whom we would not be able to operate. Everyone has to make a living, but there is definitely a sense of looking after each other, fairness and camaraderie.

We employ local staff, who are down to earth, hard-working professionals, with excellent knowledge of the area.

We have had, and hopefully will continue to have some of the most lovely people as clients, landlords and tenants, that makes the job really worthwhile.

Due to the nature of our business we deal with not only local people, but those moving in from other parts of the country, and sometimes the world, we feel pleased for them that they have found Richmond, as we know that they will be happy here and looked after.

We all agree that not only are we lucky to live in such a wonderful place, we benefit from its friendliness on a daily basis.

York House Antiques

Christine Swift

Richmond has a lot to offer - The Castle, Georgian Theatre, the river Swale, Easby Abbey - A lovely environment. Plenty to see and visit. Great walks. Brilliant TV coverage on programmes such as Gardeners World (Millgate House) and Antiques Road Trip (York House).

The shops and eating places we have offer excellent service and a bit more. The B & B’s I know are second to none.

Local people and traders are happy to offer local people and visitors general information, plus a local insight into the different aspects of the more interesting and quirky that is not on the general radar. Just need to ask!

English Heritage Trust

Paul Yardley

The town of Richmond is a brilliant place to work. In the heart of the town stands its famous Norman castle, where I work as a steward. The great thing about this castle's location is that it has an amazing Georgian market town on its doorstep, with its other main attractions. We work closely with the town's other attractions such as the Green Howards Museum, Georgian Theatre and Richmondshire Museum, as well as the council itself.

The local community also help our site in a big way: whenever we are hosting an event they turn up in big numbers to support our charity, and are always happy to show our advertisement in their shop windows and spread the word. Speaking from someone who doesn’t live within the Richmondshire area, I think the people of Richmond are very proud of their castle, and the castle, with its staff, are very proud of the town and people's support.