This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit podone. co. uk. This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell, and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode two of series two. Here, we showcase unique stories from the vibrant companies and service providers of the village. Based at the business village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Well, if you're ready. In this episode of Business Village People, we meet a clothes designer who would not be doing what she does now if it wasn't for an old chuffer puffing about at a railway station. 

Plus, we chat to the Business Village's new chief executive, Martin Beasley. He was all set to join the RAF and possibly fly helicopters. But that dream ended when they found out he was from Rotherham.  Hello? David?  What?  It was just a joke, Kevin.  Yeah, I know. Okay. Okay.  Bye.  I've been advised to point out that the last bit is untrue.

He wasn't allowed to play with the choppers due to a sports related injury. I just thought my reason was funnier. 

Time to meet one of the newest clients to join the many companies at the business village in Barnsley.  In saying that, she's run her own designer clothing business in Barnsley since the late 1960s. Since then, Rita Britton has become renowned around the world as a straight talking business guru. A few years ago, she retired, but now she's back.

I asked her why. I think it lasted, well, probably a month, but I was seriously thinking after about four days this is, this is a big mistake. I think me and my other half.  Or I probably would have killed him for not moving his breakfast pots off the table and putting them in the sink. So yeah, I thought, get back to it.

Worked since I was 15. You know, you can't turn it off like a tap. And the other thing that you can't turn off, talking of taps, is creativity.  You can't, you know, you've only got to look, I was  listening the other day to the playwright. It looks like David, David Hockney. What's his name now? Alan Bennett.

That's it. And he was in Westminster Abbey. And, you know, he must be eight, what, eight, five, eight, six years old.  And he, it's the same there, isn't it? Can't just turn it off. It's still there, it's still interested in who those people were in those graves and what their lifestyle was like. And it brings it to life for you.

You know, you just think this is wonderful. And David Hockney,  you know, I think in Yorkshire we're an incredibly creative people. I really do think, maybe it's to do with adversity, I don't know. But, um,  When I used to work at the paper mill, which I did from being, what, 15, 16. And the girls there were incredibly creative.

We used to go to jazz festivals at City Hall in Sheffield and, you know, it was just wonderful. So yeah, it were, it were great. I think creativity is knocked out of people  as they get older. by organizations and businesses and things like that and they're frightened to  actually have a go at  making something or creating something or drawing or coming up with a creative idea. 

Yeah, I mean, I, I, I have come across that. But then on the other hand, um, I was working with a young student from Barnsley, but she's now working in London at Westminster College doing fashion. She came to see me in the shop and she wrote,  a mother with her and she brought her work with her  and then she, I looked at her work and I thought, you know, this is good.

This is really good.  And she wanted to work with one of the London designers, a designer called Simon Rocher. And one of my guys who used to work with me as an assistant buyer.  Oh gosh, I could go on and on and on and on, couldn't I? He was from Glasgow, right? And he was a real Glaswegian, red hair, fiery temper, the old lot.

He is now one of the most successful men in New York, James Gilchrist. He works for He's virtually second in command to, there's a source called Dover Street Market, I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but they are the most avant garde stores on the planet. And he works for them. So I sent her his work and he said, yeah, what, what, what she want to do?

I said, she wants to go and do a placement with Simone Russia. Two days later, she got the placement. And I did it with a jewellery design and then I thought the jewellery was gobsmacking. I mean, no one could have sold it here. It was like, uh,  It's at  about 10, 15 grand.  And I sent it to James and said, what do you think of this?

It's now in the New York store. So I'm still, what I find is that the people that I trained, and what he said to the jeweler who went to the store to place their jewelry in, he said, if Ree says, listen, or look at it, that's exactly what I do.  And I thought that was great because he's so loyal that if I say, look at this.

So I do work with young people and people that I've worked with in the past, buyers. Um, I mean, lovely stories I have to tell. The first buying job he had with me was we went to Prada in Milan. And James had got red hair and very pale skin. And this was his first buying job. And we walk in there, because you can't help, if you come from Barnsley, you're Barnsley.

Don't care where you are, won't show you.  So I'm walking down to go to our table to buy. And the shelves there,  and, On the shelf is a, is a, uh, uh, uh, a beret. And it's sequined. It's a sequined beret.  And I turned round to James and I said, You know that beret, if we took that beret, we'd have to sell that for 800 quid.

And he sat across the table and he's looking at me. And he went even whiter.  And then he put his hand across his mouth because I knew he was going to be sick. And he made a dash for the toilet. And as he's dashing down the room, I went, James, not in the beret, for God's sake, not in the beret. And he, when he's setting on new  members of staff now in New York, he tells them that story.

He's incredibly loyal to me.  So I still have, you know,  Get a hell of a lot of respect from the younger kids. I mean, tomorrow morning I'm going, um, I'm going to Barnsley College to talk to the  girl who's running the fashion department. So, I think I've still got things there, experience there that I can still  pass on. 

And I think that's, that's great. And, and I suppose, you know, same with, I think that's great. I'm not saying I'm in  the same range of Alan Bennett or something, but he's on TV and you sit and you listen to him because you know he's going to be interesting. You know it. So yeah, I've still got a spark there.

I love the job I do. I love it.  So tell me about your pots and pans at home and why it's turned you  to  get a unit down here at the business village. Well, to be honest with you, I've looked at how I've worked and where I've worked. I mean, I started off  selling clothes in my gran's business.  Back bedroom at home.

I went to London, bought Mary Quant. Um, I'm one of the funniest, because I could tell you so many funny stories. I know, that's why I wanted to say that. I remember, I remember going to Mary Quant, and of course, oh Mary Quant, you know. And my dad, God love him, drove me there because, um, because I'd fallen down and broke my ankle. 

And, and bless him, he'd done night shift at Redfins. It then got in the car.  At half past six in the morning, he drove me to London, he parked the car up and I had a nap in the car. I went to Mary Quant's  and they got models walking up and down, they'd all got Vidal Sassoon haircuts. And they served as Tea and cucumber sandwiches with the crust cut off.

And all I can remember thinking is, Bloody hell, they must be hard up for money. If all,  If all they're going to serve is cucumber sandwiches.  What will me gran think of this?  And then me dad brought me home. And then he went on to do his night shift again. So why have you moved to the village? Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm digressing, yes.

So, I suddenly thought, right, back bedroom, then we had Pollyanna in Market Hill, which was,  I didn't realise it, you're in the middle of it, and it was gobsmacking. I mean, I talk about Dover Street Market. We were the forerunner of Dover Street Market. But  for me, it was, it was a business, it was a job, and I wouldn't, I was never snobby about it.

It was, it's coming from Barnsley, isn't it? How can you be snobby coming from Barnsley? Anyway, so then I had stroke. Heart attack,  um, bloody hell, pneumonia. I mean, God threw everything at me. And I thought, I've got to do it a different way. And I, and I took a much smaller shop down George Yard, and I enjoyed that as well.

We had a cafe on the ground floor, um, with a guy called Martin who did the cooking, who was superb.  But then I suddenly realized that the heart has gone out of my chest.  Going and parking your car and going into shops. It's gone out of it. And whether I like it or not,  I have got to get an internet up and running.

I've got to be able to add on all that we know. We've got the client base.  We've got to sell. on the internet and come kicking and screaming into this century. And that's what I'm about to do now, but I still want face to face. And what I love about this place is that I'm surrounded with creative people.

You've seen it today. And the client just walked through the door and taking it.  I wouldn't want to be totally cut off, but I'm mean the middle of it, you know, I can see what IL's doing. What, and, and it's wonderful working with creative people. I mean, I've watched Azel over the last, she, I keep saying to her, she, you should be in a bloody Co. 

Don't swear. Don't swear. This is not broadcasting, not the bbc.  You can say Knackers if you want to. Well, yeah, but, well, one. It's more on the BBC, a certain radio, and I've gone and apologized,  but yeah, I mean, I sa