nostalgia
A bit of history…
Coach House as a trading name was established in 1977 although it was in progress well before this. Diane Bovingdon together with her father started the business in Bingley, Yorkshire when she was just twenty-two. They dealt in antiques and bric-a-brac in an old barn attached to the White Horse Pub, known as the
‘Old Coach House’.
David Bovingdon in 1970, after years of farming, began stripping original pieces of pine furniture when the antique pine look was just becoming fashionable, this became quite the commercial enterprise. Shortly after David started selling to trade and opened a retail outlet in Skipton, North Yorkshire. When the pair met in 1984, they embarked on both a romantic and business adventure, and their decision to start trading in reproduction furniture together was the one that created and moulded Coach House in to the business as it stands today.
"I met my wife Diane in 1984. She was already in the antiques trade, dealing in fine antique and period pine.
I became her stripper- not that kind of stripper of course! - and we established the beginnings of our wholesale business”
David Bovingdon.
A move to mill town Colne was where the company began to flourish... years later we crossed the border into the red rose county with a move to Altham another turning point for Coach House, with formal showrooms and a more sophisticated warehousing systems, we grew to be what we are today.
Now the company is a full family business with David, Diane and their three children all involved each with their own different roles.
“Having all three of our children in the firm all with their own individual strengths is the most exciting thing that has happened to CH in a long time. Watch this space!”
Diane Bovingdon.