A CAFE and coffee merchant business is set to fund a shed for rare-breed cows at a school for children with learning difficulties after raising £125,000 in a fundraising drive.

Staff at Harrogate-based firm Bettys & Taylors raised more than £62,000 for eight Yorkshire charities by holding cake bakes, quizzes and bric-a-brac sales.

The total was matched pound for pound by the business, which employs 1,400 staff.

Charities nominated by staff to receive funding included Mowbray School, in Masham Road, Bedale, the Independent Domestic Abuse Service in York, York MIND in York, the Alzheimer’s Society in Ripon and Harrogate and The Yorkshire Regiment Benevolent Trust in York.

Staff at Northallerton Bettys Café Tea Rooms chose the school as their charity and raised £3,219. The school educates and cares for pupils aged three to 16, and runs a 5.5-acre farm where it keeps sheep, hens, pigs and turkeys.

Headteacher Jonathan Tearle said: “The money raised will be used to purchase a stable for our newly acquired rare breed Dexter cows and will be much appreciated by the pupils and staff.”