A COUPLE passionate about cycling and helping children and adults enjoy biking in the Yorkshire Dales have won a bid to run a cafe at a National Park museum.

Helen Pollard and Mike Allenby have run Stage1 Cycles at Askrigg, Wensleydale, since 2014, opening just in time for the Tour de France Grand Depart in the region.

The business has gone from strength to strength, offering cycle hire and repairs as well as tours and advice for visitors, and also work closely with the local community to provide cycle trips for Scouts, ‘Bikeability’ skills at primary schools, and indoor cycling for under fives.

Ms Pollard said she and partner Mr Allenby decided to set up the business so she could spend more time with six-year-old daughter Daisy – and that the whole family was excited to move the business to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority-run Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, where they will also run the new Firebox Cafe.

She said: “Feed stations are very important for cyclists and it was missing from our Askrigg premises.

“We will of course be catering for everyone who comes to the museum but our staff will have to be flexible and be able to help cyclists as well as serve visitors.”

She added her daughter Daisy is also looking forward to the move – and after meeting Chancellor George Osborne when he visited the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority offices in Grassington last year, she was keen to invite him to their opening in March.

Kathryn Beardmore, director of park services at the national park, said: “Helen and Mike put forward a fantastic pitch with great ideas for the cafe.

“The museum had been lacking a cafe and footfall had been significantly dropping – in 2009 to 2010 the visitor centre had 135,000 visitors but in 2014 to 2015 that was down to 66,000 visitors – so we wanted to make sure we were providing the service people expected.”

Ms Beardmore said there had been some opposition within Hawes to another food outlet – but she said the cafe and cycle shop was an exciting venture both for the museum and Hawes.

She added: “It is great to give the cafe to a local business, and it will be good for Hawes as we hope it will attract more visitors who will then go out and enjoy what the town has to offer.”