Lovely couple Oscar Boatfield and Nell Wharton set up The Wildish Club to ‘re-package the hippy culture’ and encourage a sense of community and wellbeing where they live in Pateley Bridge. We catch up with them in their coffee shop
Oscar Boatfield was just eight years old when he started selling home grown chili plants to fund his childhood passion for fly fishing.
It was an early lesson in self-funding and self-efficiency inspired by his parents, who would regularly trade all kinds of things, in particular his father’s artworks, for goods and services. Fast forward 20 years and Oscar knew the give-and-take ethos which had underpinned his upbringing was something he wanted to develop into a fundamental way of life.
‘I wanted to build a community of like-minded people who were not obsessed with money and acquisitions but on sharing a common set of values based on selflessness, looking out for each other and sound moral judgement,’ he says. ‘I would like to see more and more people sharing their skills and a creating lifestyles which are not driven by money.’
It wasn’t until he met his future wife, Australian-born vet Nell Wharton, that Oscar’s vision finally became a reality.
They could not have come from more diverse backgrounds. Oscar is one of a family of eight who lived in a two-bedroom council house in Cambridge whilst Nell comes from a more privileged background, growing up in Sydney, Australia.
Yet they found they had huge amounts in common. Both have experienced depression and anxiety and both recognised an urgent need for a shift towards a more positive way of living and thinking.
‘Our social habits have dramatically changed post-COVID and our default position has been to stay in, play safe and risk less – something that needs to change if mental health is to improve,’ says Nell. ‘Many people have became really lonely and found it incredibly hard to meet people, yet we are by nature sociable creatures and we need to be in a community to stop us feeling isolated and inward-looking.’
Nell and Oscar met in a coffee shop in Hampshire, but it wasn’t until Oscar wooed Nell with a magical date day - that involved a scavenger hunt, a bone fide letter from David Attenborough apologising that he couldn’t join the experience, and a message trail via a host of local shopkeeper - that the couple realised they were kindred spirits. They were married in October 2022 and around the same time moved to Yorkshire.
‘I’ve been travelling north to fly fish in Yorkshire since I was 12,’ he says. ‘There is a very creative, outdoor based community in Pateley Bridge and I realised there was an opportunity here to make a difference.’
Initially Oscar wanted to create something artisan and sustainable that he could sell to fund his fly-fishing. He settled on a fly-fishing bag and, with Nell, set to on designing and making a protype.
‘We quickly realised that we couldn’t do this ourselves, so we went online and approached a wonderful artisan maker in Suffolk, who agreed to make a series of sustainable and ethically made backpacks and bags, crafted from organic, waterproof dry-waxed cotton canvas fabric,’ says Nell. ‘We call the brand BearMade and our aim is to encourage at least one person to recognise the benefit of being outdoors from the sale of each bag.’
From this simple ethos they began to look at broader ways of getting the local community outdoors and united.
‘We were mulling over ideas and knew that getting people out and about in nature would be a key element of what we wanted to achieve,’ says Nell. ‘We have both experienced depression and anxiety and know that mental health is a big issue for many people. We also understand how being outdoors and spending time with others can have a huge and very positive impact on our mental and physical wellbeing.’
Oscar picks up the story. ‘I said it would be great to include workshops which were outdoors. Not completely wild, but wild-ish. Outdoor activities and countryside walks would also reduce the effects of loneliness, which is a major problem of modern life.’
With the help of funding from the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, they set up The Wildish Club, a series of regular evening walks and outdoor workshops in Nidderdale, including fly fishing, foraging, star-gazing, drawing and a host of other nature-inspired events designed to bring people together outdoors and change lives for the better.
Earlier this year they opened an artisan coffee shop in the centre of Pateley Bridge which they have kitted out with reclaimed wood and furniture and where many of their ‘wild-ish’ ideas are born and club members meet on a regular basis.
Oscar and Nell’s mid-term aim is to establish three other Wildish Clubs – including one in Edinburgh - before the end of the year and, in the long term, encourage similar clubs to become an integral part of communities throughout the UK.
‘We both feel that society generally is losing its sense of community,” says Oscar. ‘There is more selfishness, more focus on money and possessions and much less on the really important things in life that are fundamental to our sense of happiness and well-being. We want to re-package the ‘hippy culture’ cliche and make it more appealing to anyone who wants to improve their sense of well-being whilst making a positive impact on others.’
To find out more about the group, visit: thewildishclub.co.uk
For more information about BearMade visit bearmade.co.uk
