Keep It Local: Four Gables B&B, Boston Spa
KNOWING the source of all your food is one of the best aspects of shopping locally, as the owners of one Boston Spa Bed and Breakfast believe.
David and Anne Watts produce everything from jams and marmalades to free-range eggs from their garden for the breakfast table at Four Gables in Oaks Lane.
Anything else they need comes from local shops, with as much of it as possible being fair trade, organic produce. David believes, alongside the style of their imposing house, the bread from Broughtons in Boston Spa, vegetables from Johnsons in Wetherby and meat from Illingworths in East Keswick are what attract people to stay there.
"The focus of what we do is personal," he says. "We want people to get the best of our local area.
"For a small village, Boston has a great high street - lots of nice shops and restaurants. It's good for us because people can come here and walk somewhere easily."
David and Anne came to the business from very different backgrounds. David was born in Richmond, North Yorkshire, and lived in Thorp Arch for many years with his three children. He and his late wife bought Four Gables 12 years ago, but she sadly died just 18 months after they moved in.
Anne, meanwhile, was born in Germany, but, as the Berlin wall was being built, her parents took her to America, where she stayed until the early 1990s.
"I was working in south east LA which is a high crime area," she said. "You factor in the traffic and the smog and I was very ready to leave.
"I went back to Germany to my roots and realised I had changed and Germany had changed, so I came to England."
After five years in London, Anne ventured north to Yorkshire. She met David, got to know Boston Spa and, eight years ago, decided Four Gables offered her the kind of home she had been looking for.
"As with anything, there are upsides and down sides but for us there are far more positives," she says. "We cycle with a group of friends on a Thursday morning. We wouldn't be able to do that with most jobs."
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Weather for Ripon
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 2 C to 6 C
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Wind direction: West
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Temperature: 0 C to 6 C
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