Robert Drake opened the shop at 11 Otley Street in 1898. He trained his young nephew Jack Macefield at the bench, and the name above the door has been Drake & Macefield ever since. Six ownerships across 127 years, one Skipton address. Today the family runs three counters across the Dales (Skipton, Settle, Cross Hills) and the pie bakery at Snaygill, where the matchday stock for Leeds United at Elland Road comes out of the same oven that has won the National Pie Supreme Champion, the Smithfield Diamond, and Great British Pie Awards bronze. Crowned Best Butcher, North of England, by the Countryside Alliance Awards in 2025.
Everything that goes out from the four trading premises was cut, cured, linked or baked under the Drake & Macefield name. The Snaygill bakery serves all three counters and the matchday van to Elland Road. Twenty-eight staff, one bench standard.
The original bench, on the original address. Yorkshire-Dales beef and lamb from the named farms around Craven, cut to order from a primal in the cool room. Sirloin and rib hung on the bone, 21 days minimum for the steak side. Yorkshire pork, free-range poultry, game in season from the shoots above the dale. Mince made fresh each morning from the day's trim, never recycled board scrap. Phone the counter for a specific weight or trim.
The bakery that supplies Elland Road on a Saturday. 1999 National Pie Supreme Champion for the stand pie. 2005 Smithfield Diamond for the steak and kidney pudding. 2024 Great British Pie Awards bronze for the venison, mushroom and red wine. House-pressed pastry, trim from the same bench as the public counter, family seasoning. Mon-Fri counter shop on Snaygill from six in the morning.
Settle opened on Market Place in 2000, the Three Peaks gateway shop. Closed Wednesdays for the market-day reset. Cross Hills opened on Main Street in 2018, in the Aire Gap between Skipton and Keighley. Closed Tuesdays. Both run the Otley Street bench standard, the same award-winning pies and bacon from the Snaygill bakery.
The branded van runs the Dales delivery rounds out of Snaygill on a weekly route. Eleven village shops carry the range across Craven, from Clapham in the upper dale to Cononley and Pateley Bridge. Online orders from the website to the door anywhere in the postcode network. The rural rounds the way Robert Drake ran them in 1898, on rubber tyres instead of cart wheels.
Every Whites home game, the matchday pie stock for the Elland Road concourses runs off the production line at Snaygill, two miles south of the Otley Street counter. The same bakery, the same trim, the same family seasoning that won the 1999 National Pie Award Supreme Champion for our stand pie. House-pressed pastry, the meat from the same bench as the public counter. Award-winning since the last century, in the hand of a Leeds fan at half time.
"The Snaygill bakery is one of a handful of single-shop butchers in the UK that have won the National Pie Award Supreme Champion. The same kitchen still bakes the pies that go to Elland Road on a Saturday." From our story, drakeandmacefield.co.uk
In 1898 Robert Drake opened a butcher's shop on Otley Street in Skipton. He brought his young nephew Jack Macefield onto the bench as a boy, often pulling Jack out of school early because Jack reckoned the customers came first. Jack ran the shop until his death in the early 1980s. Ian Thompson, trained by Jack, took it on in 1985. Richard Teal joined as partner in 1997. Ian retired in 2016 and Richard's sons Andrew and Steven came back to the bench, restoring the family-business ethos. Six ownerships across 127 years, all on the original Otley Street address.
Skipton is the 1898 flagship and the only counter open Sundays-aside seven days a week. Settle opened in 2000 on the upper Ribblesdale market place. Cross Hills opened in 2018 in the Aire Gap. Each shop is closed on its own day of the week. The pie bakery on Snaygill Industrial Park serves all three.
FLAGSHIP · 1898 11 Otley Street, Skipton BD23 1DY
Adam Proctor, manager
The 1898 founding shop. Otley Street has carried the Drake & Macefield bench for 127 years.
OPENED 2000 Market Place, Settle BD24 9EJ
Steven Proctor, manager
Market Place, the Three Peaks gateway. Closed Wednesdays for the market-day reset.
OPENED 2018 49 Main Street, Cross Hills BD20 8TT
Anthony Leathley, manager
Main Street, the Aire Gap. Closed Tuesdays.
Three Dales counters and the Snaygill pie bakery. Six days a week somewhere is open.
YORKSHIRE DALES · FIELD TO BENCH The named farms either side of Otley Street supply the bench. Beef and lamb come in on the carcass; sirloin and rib are hung on the bone in the cool room for a minimum of twenty-one days for the steak side. Lamb is hung whole. The back-of-house writes the kill date on the side in chalk and reads it off when a customer asks. Nothing on the counter is pre-sliced. The bench takes a request for a butterflied leg of lamb, a French-trimmed rack, a Yorkshire sirloin to two centimetres, and produces it while you wait or holds it in the cool room for collection.
For a Sunday rib of beef, a Christmas turkey, a stand pie for a birthday, a meat box for a Bonfire Night gathering, or a particular cut from a particular Dales farm, phone any of the three counters or send a note. For larger Sunday joints we ask for the phone-in by Thursday afternoon. Christmas orders open in late October.
Skipton is the 1898 flagship, ten minutes from Skipton Castle, on Otley Street running east off the high street. Settle is on Market Place at the start of the Settle-Carlisle line. Cross Hills is on Main Street in the Aire Gap, on the A629 between Skipton and Keighley. The Pie Shop counter on Snaygill Industrial Park is south of Skipton on the Carleton road, weekdays only.
Christmas orders open from late October. Turkey, goose and beef joints held for collection on Christmas Eve. Stand pies, Yorkshire pork pies and award-winning steak & kidney puddings from the Snaygill bakery throughout the year.
Yes. The Snaygill bakery produces the matchday pie stock for Leeds United at Elland Road. The same kitchen that won the 1999 National Pie Award Supreme Champion for our stand pie, and the 2005 Smithfield Diamond for our steak and kidney pudding, runs the matchday production for every Whites home game.
Yes. Phone the Otley Street counter on 01756 792802, tell us the weight and the trim, and we cut it on the bench while you wait or hold it in the cool room for collection. For Sunday joints we recommend ringing by Thursday afternoon for the larger ribs and forequarter cuts.
Skipton is closed Sundays only. Settle is closed Wednesdays and Sundays (market-day reset). Cross Hills is closed Tuesdays and Sundays. The Pie Shop at Snaygill is a Monday-to-Friday counter only. The network is open six days a week somewhere in the Dales.
Yorkshire-Dales beef and lamb from the named farms either side of Otley Street. Beef is hung on the bone, sirloin and rib dry-aged a minimum of 21 days for the steak side. Lamb is hung whole. Game in season from the shoots above the dale. Free-range poultry, Christmas turkey from late October.
Yes. Every pie, pudding, pasty and sausage roll comes out of the Snaygill bakery on the southern edge of Skipton. The trim that goes into the pastry is the same trim that goes on the public counter. House-pressed pastry, family seasoning, no third-party fillings.
Yes. Christmas orders open in late October. We hold turkey, goose, beef and pork joints for collection on Christmas Eve. Hampers can be put together at any of the three shops on a phone-in, from a single pie up to a family Christmas spread with cured gammon, Yorkshire pork pie and dry-cured bacon.
No. The rebuild brings the design with it. The logo lock-up, the photography crops, the colour palette and the type pairing are all set as part of the build, sampled from the heritage and the shopfront. You see the proposed direction in this preview before committing.