One of the UK’s oldest garden centres has been bought in a £1.5 deal. California Gardens at Howden, near Goole, has been taken on by two local businessmen who plan to invest a further £1 million to add a new restaurant and other upgrades to the four acre site.
Owned by the Hall family since 1879, Cameron Holroyd and Rob Hardcastle are now at the helm.
Mr Hardcastle is the owner of several East Yorkshire landscaping and horticultural businesses, including Ellerker Lodge Garden Centre near Brough, and employs more than 75 people in the region.
He said: “California Gardens is very well known by everyone in the area and we’re thrilled to have bought an important piece of local history, which has been in the care of successive generations of the Hall family for over 140 years.
“Our aim is now to make the garden centre even better, with a fantastic range of plants and garden accessories and an extension and upgrade of the café, which we have renamed the Olive Tree. We’re currently getting ready for the café’s reopening on April 12 and later this year plan to extend the space so that it seats 250 people and becomes a full restaurant, serving great home-cooked meals.”
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