Heighley Gate Garden Centre
During more than 35 years of trading, Heighley Gate Garden Centre has grown from strength to strength, and has built up a reputation for having an unrivalled selection of quality plants and gardening products in the North East of England as well as being very much a family orientated centre with a professional and friendly service.
David and Sheila Lishman could not have envisaged the successful retail and growing operation that Heighley Gate is today when they purchased their pig and poultry farm on the site in 1963.
David and Sheila met whilst studying at what was then The Northumberland College of Agriculture, Kirkley Hall, Ponteland and after their marriage in 1963 they moved into the small pig and poultry farm determined to make a living from rearing pigs and hens.
In the meantime, in a bid to raise extra cash, the couple decided to sell eggs to passing motorists using the main Morpeth to Wooler Road. Before long these passing customers had become regulars and it wasn''t long before they spotted the greenhouse in the garden complete with tomatoes and lettuces and asked if they too were for sale.
Always the entrepreneur, David decided to build another greenhouse with the profits and when business continued to grow, further second-hand greenhouse were snapped up locally. But with money still tight, cost cutting measures were still the order of the day and David would even collect sea coal from local beaches to fire the boilers that were used to heat the greenhouses whilst leaving Sheila in charge at the farm and having to balance this with looking after their three young children.
The challenge of keeping up with the ever changing garden industry has led to the development of our site over the years and as trade has increased the profits have been reinvested with new departments and areas being developed to enhance the appeal of our centre as a garden lovers paradise with other attractions being incorporated all the time to make us very much a complete destination centre for enthusiasts and families alike.
As equal in importance to our customers are our excellent staff, some of whom started their working lives at Heighley Gate, and we are now one of the largest employers in the area with over 130 staff during our busy periods.
The Heighley Gate of today is unrecognizable as the small pig and poultry farm that David and Sheila bought all those years ago but the overall ethos remains the same and the three children, Fiona, Michael and Chris all work within the business and are determined to carry on with the family concern from the strong foundations that have already been laid.
