Hatton Country World celebrates 30th anniversary

Johnnie Arkwright, owner of Hatton Country World.

Hatton Country World was opened in the 1980s as a small craft shop by Johnnie Arkwright - a descendent of Sir Richard Arkwright, a founding father of the Industrial Revolution who developed the Spinning Jenny.

Today, Hatton employs 150 with its half a million visitors each year justifying Mr Arkwright’s decision to turn parts of his 800-acre estate into a shopping destination and farm park.

Mr Arkwright said: “We have created a rural haven here for shoppers who wish to escape from busy high street shops into a tranquil setting where independent retailers offer a wide range of the ‘unique, unusual and boutique’.”

In 1982 Mr Arkwright, a chartered surveyor in London working in commercial property development, returned to Hatton to take over the family estate from his father.

The site was in need of much regeneration in order for it to generate income.

As luck would have it, the following year planning regulations were changed, allowing redundant farm buildings to be used for non-farming purposes for the first time.

There was a high level of demand in the Midlands, mainly from those who had lost their jobs in the widespread redundancies emanating from the industrial restructuring put in place by Margaret Thatcher.

And so the concept of what was to become Hatton Shopping Village – and later Hatton Country World - was born and In 1984, Mr Arkwright converted the Victorian carthorse stables, saddle room and bull pen farm to house craftsmen and their wares.

By 1986 the centre had won the Craft Centre of the Year award, 12 months after lifting the government’s Rural Employment Award.