A BRADFORD catering firm has expanded from the city centre to run its business out of an 18th-century mansion house.
James Heslegrave, director of JJH Catering Services Ltd, is expanding by moving into Hoyle Court, on Otley Road, Baildon.
The business also currently operates and runs Gerry’s At The Courts Cafe in the Bradford Crown Court building.
Mr Heslegrave said: “We still have Gerry’s but we’ve expanded to move into Hoyle Court at Baildon.
“It’s a beautiful building. It’s an 18th-century mansion house.
“We’re in partnership with the Masonic Lodge there.
“It’s a Masonic Lodge which is licenced and has a fully serviced kitchen.
“We’ll deliver events for the Masons and anyone else who wants to rent the facilities.
“We’re going to cater for conferences, weddings, parties, funeral teas and other big events.
“We’ve got experience of doing events and weddings because we did them at Kala Sangam.
“We took over a few weeks ago and it’s going very well.
“I’m taking it on with acting director and chef Matthew Hillard.
“Matthew is controlling the food and I run the business and finance.
“This facility has given us more scope to do bigger functions.
“We’ll be serving locally sourced fresh food from Bradford and Halifax.
“We try to keep it as local as we can and use fresh, quality food which is available at an appropriate price.”
James said the catering business started off running the Rooftop Cafe, which was on the top floor of the Kala Sangam arts centre in September 2017.
The Rooftop Cafe shut after five-and-a-half years in April 2023.
In May 2023, James moved across the city centre to open Gerry’s in the city's Crown Court building.
The cafe is named after the late Judge Gerald ‘Gerry’ Coles QC who was the first Resident Judge at Bradford Crown Court when it opened.
“We moved from the Rooftop Café at Kala Sangam when it was closed for refurbishment and went to run Gerry’s," said James.
“The whole of the court’s catering facilities was shut down during Covid.
“We’re now well supported at Crown Court but we’ve doubled up from having a canteen and cafe.
“We have four employees at Gerry’s and there are nine staff at Hoyle Court.”
“It’s just a nice feel-good story for us to be a local business that is expanding.”
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