Staff
Meet Our Staff Team
Management
Helen Lawrence | Assistant Manager
Mark Rance | General Manager
Mark has overall responsibility for managing Wydale, for vision and strategy, for staffing and finance and for ensuring that Wydale sticks to the plan to be a prayerful community renewing the Church’s mission. Helen handles finance week by week, keeps Mark on the straight and narrow and masterminds the Wydale programme of events each year. Mark was Head of Operations at The Belfrey church in York before becoming General Manager of Wydale in January 2015 and Helen ran her own training and development business until 2015 when she moved to the country!
Catering
David Riley | Catering Manager
David is the Manager of our kitchen. He is responsible for staff in the kitchen, for menu and rota planning, for ensuring that all our systems are compliant and that we have great food safety. David has worked in the catering industry for many years, as Head Chef for several well known establishments in North Yorkshire. David still works as a cook at the Cayley Arms at Ebberston if you can’t get enough of his goodies!
Barrie Martin | Cook
Barrie has been cooking for many years all over the area and makes amazing salads and cakes!
Kevin Dakin | Catering Assistant
Kevin is a cheerful presence around the kitchen and washup - helping to keep everything running smoothly and keeping the biscuit basket full! Kevin also turns his hand to many mending and fixing jobs when we need him to!
Housekeeping
Emily Martin and Jo Bradley | Housekeepers
We have a wonderful team of people who keep the Wydale rooms spic and span and who manage very quick turn-arounds from one group to the next. Emily and Jo are both local and are around every weekday from 9am to 2pm to sort out the rooms and to be a constant cheerful presence for our guests.
Ken Pickering | Gardener
Ken is our gardener. He works half the week taming the 14 acres of Wydale land!
Volunteers
Wydale is blessed with many people who help us very regularly by working in a voluntary capacity. Ann, Christine and Ruth come for a couple of days a month to help in the office. Geoff helps with practical jobs around the house. Sue and Steph garden most weeks, Rob looks after our trees throughout the year & Diana stocks and cares for our gift stall. The Wydale Oversight and Support Group is a wonderful group of people who help us to manage the affairs of the hall. Then there are others who are on permanent stand-by for when we need a practical job doing, or some help leading an event, or when we need people to come and pray with guests. They are all part of the Wydale community. If you would like to volunteer at Wydale please do contact us.