Meet the Café Oak Team

Cindy is a wonder woman who started up Youth Works many years ago and now Cafe Oak, where we are starting to train the young people in skills such as kitchen work, food hygiene, barista training, and front-of-house skills. This was all Cindy's concept and all credit to her and her vision. She's (almost) a Geddington lass, having lived here for about 25 years, and we hope you'll support her in this brilliant venture.

Charlotte has worked at Youth Works for about 5/6 years, teaching Customer Service to students. Her former life was as a jobbing actor in London before she moved back here to help set up Johnny's Happy Place alongside Cindy and others, after the death of her brother Johnny in 2014. She has a side hustle as an interior designer (Mackay Interiors) and designed the new look cafe (she hopes you like it!)

Bex lives in Geddington and is married with two young children. She loves cheese and chocolate, her favourite season is Autumn and she loves meeting new people. She has recently set up her own tanning business that she runs from home called Bronze by Bex!

Bev has worked at Cafe Oak now for 3 years after leaving her role as a nursery nurse for over 22 years. She loves the challenges and new experiences that front of house at Cafe Oak brings and interacting with our lovely customers and regulars is her favourite part of the working day. A little fun fact about her is she is a self confessed total cake-a-holic!

Jayden works in the cafe on the weekends and in the school holidays. Jayden is in his second year of sixth form and is a Black belt in martial arts! In his spare time he likes to go out with his friends or see his girlfriend.

Trudy recently retired from a career in the NHS locally, she is a volunteer here at Cafe Oak. When she’s not volunteering she enjoys the gym, open water swimming and paddleboarding. A keen skier, she is always looking for the best snow in winter and she loves to travel. She is working her way through a bucket list of places to visit!

"I've lived in Geddington for 10 years. I'm married to Jerry and when we got our dog, Tilly, my children said DO NOT make an Instagram account for her - so I did! She now has over 18k followers! I love baking and Cakes By Caroline has been creating bespoke cakes for the last 9 years. I am a fully trained sign language tutor and three years ago I opened a hedgehog rescue in the village. Over 300 hedgehogs have come through the rescue since then. I am so excited about my new role in Café Oak & can’t wait to get started."

Leah is a local mum of 2 very busy children. She was born and raised in Geddington but travelled and worked in Portugal and Australia riding and training horses, before settling back in the village working with adults with learning difficulties and brain injury rehabilitation. She loves baking, spending time with her family and trying new and amazing food and of course, cake!

Nicki Teaches English at Youth Works during the week and is usually spotted with her trusty Border Collie, Buddy by her side. Buddy is a firm student favourite and provides fun and cuddles for the students from Monday to Friday. Nicki loves travelling between here and Tuscany with her Italian husband, Buddy and their two gorgeous girls in their campervan "Banana Colin".

Gavin loves baking and makes many of our cakes. His favourite is lemon and blueberry. Gav created two of his own signature breakfasts at The Old Watermill tearooms in Ringstead involving bagels, bacon, sausage, hollandaise sauce with an egg dropped in the middle. He co-founded Boards of Kettering which is a local board games company and helps run a young persons after school club for Youth Works. Gav helped start the first Northamptonshire board games convention this year at Kettering Arts Centre. He is also an occasional drag queen named Rosemary Chips. Our rosemary chips are in dedication to her.

India has recently graduated from university and has gained a lot of experience sitting in cafes for long periods of time with a chai latte in hand. She loves reading, one of her favourite authors being Arundhati Roy, and hopes to find a career in the publishing industry. When she’s not catching up with family and friends she’s crocheting hats, scarves and scrunchies for them. India has started working part time at Youth Works and pops in to help at the café when she can!

Grace lives just down the road and has lived in Geddington all her life. She's recently taken up running and loves to run around the beautiful countryside here. She loves to travel and plans to do more in the next year, eventually settling down in Australia for a little while. She loves a good vintage find so, in her spare time you can catch her thrifting! Grace mostly helps with admin at Youth Works but she pops in to help at the café regularly.

At 16 I started my apprenticeship as a carpenter and ended my career as a Clerk Of Works at Corby Borough Council at 72. I did various carpentry jobs around the village and also did 2 DIYSOS Big Build at West Bromwich and Corby. I’ve lived in West Street , next to the Eleanor Cross for 31 years . One of my ancestors lived and worked in Queen st as a carpenter and coffin maker!!

Our man Lewis here came with the building and boy are we glad he did. Washer upper extraordinaire, we'd be totally lost without him on a weekend. He's currently studying a computing degree and ARU Peterborough. His hobbies include playing games on his PC, going to the gym and MATHS. A wonderful and valued member of the Cafe Oak team. We love you Lewis!