Craven Court will be losing two familiar faces when tea shop owners Tim and Anne Hemingway leave at the end of June.

The couple have run Hemingway's Tea Shop in the Skipton shopping complex for nearly 10 years after moving from a smaller shop on Sheep Street.

They currently employ 12 full-time staff, some of whom have worked there for as long as 15 years, and around 20 Saturday girls.

Tim said: "I am very sad to be going. On behalf of Anne and myself I would like to thank our staff who have been loyal."

The caf has welcomed numerous soap stars, local celebrities including Hannah Hauxwell, film actors, and even royalty, but it's their regular customers of whom Tim speaks most highly.

He said: "We have had some real fun with customers. Some of them have become friends and we have visited them in countries as far as Hong Kong and New Zealand. It will be a very sad moment when we leave."

Tim, 54, says that while some other cafs in the town have come and gone, Hemingway's has remained a strong favourite with locals and tourists.

He said: "We went through foot and mouth and a lot of the local farming community came into the caf and we would chat to them and console them in a lot of ways. It did help because we lived in the community."

When The Tea Shop moved from Sheep Street to Craven Court it more than trebled its seating capacity but despite this the shop has always managed to maintain a sense of tradition, selling coffee and jams.

Before settling in Skipton, Tim worked in restaurants and hotels all over the world, including the Royal Hotel in Guernsey, giving him the experience he needed to make his own business a success.

Along the way he cooked for most of the royal family, including the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

After running a caf for 20 years most people would be looking forward to an easy life but Tim and Anne, who live in Malham, have no plans to relax.

They intend to spend more time with their seven-month-old granddaughter, Amelia, and Tim will be helping their son, James, with his business. The couple also have a daughter, Charlotte.

* The tea shop business will continue under new owners.