Craig Bancroft has run Northcote country-house hotel in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley since 1983, guiding its development as a gastronomic beacon of the North. Harden’s caught up with him at Northcote in early January – a time of the year when many in hospitality take a welcome break after the rigours of Christmas and the New Year. Not here. Hot on the heels of the holiday season comes Obsession, Northcote’s annual festival that has become a foodie institution in its 25 years, drawing leading chefs from across Britain, Europe and further afield for three weeks of dinners in January and February.
CRAIG: It never ends! I’m meeting all afternoon with my wine team to discuss the pairings for this year’s Obsession. We try to make sure we don’t repeat any pairings, and it’s not easy. The trouble with chefs is that they’re artists, so they never decide on their menu until the last minute. Even Lisa [Lisa Goodwin-Allen, Northcote’s chef patron-director] is always lastminute.com – that’s chefs!
HARDEN’S: That was said with a big smile! You recently celebrated your 40th anniversary here and – unless you’re a brilliant actor – you always look like a man who enjoys every minute of his job. What’s your secret?
Well, we’ve always found new energy to take Northcote forward in a number of ways – you can’t stand still in a property like this. And through all the changes we’ve built our own identity, our own culture – mainly through the development of young people who come to work for us at 16 or 17. Today there are wonderful chefs, sommeliers and managers all over the country who started out here, and I take great satisfaction from that.
I’ve also been surrounded by the right people. Nigel Haworth [the former chef-director] joined the year after me, and by the time he left in 2017 Lisa had been here so long she could just carry things forward, putting her own stamp on it. Now she’s cooking in completely her own style: there’s nobody else cooking like her, and it’s wonderful.
There’s also something special about the atmosphere at Northcote: so many people fall in love while working here, so many have got married. I met my wife here! Lisa met her husband. So there’s a real family feeling.
New family owners
HARDEN’S: It sounded like good news when we reported last year that Northcote was back under family ownership, after a few years as part of the Stafford Collection hotel group.
Our new owners, Alf and Clare Ellis (pictured above), are a very successful entrepreneurial couple who love good food and wine – and who have been regulars at Obsession for 12 years. Private ownership feels right for Northcote – we had a long time, from 1989–2019, under Jack Walker and his family [the Jersey-based steel magnate who also owned Blackburn Rovers for many years]. Last year, before the sale, Lisa was on the point of leaving because she felt the business was not progressing.
Alf and Clare’s ambitions are great. We’re going to refurbish the current house, adding another 10 bedrooms; build a new stand-alone restaurant in a separate building and convert the current restaurant into a high-level brasserie; add a spa; extend the private dining – all of which means we’ll be able to accommodate more people, and better.
We’ve already recruited a high-level gardening team and restored the Victorian greenhouse, so the garden will look better as well as grow ingredients for the kitchen. We’ve relaunched Blooming Onion, our outside catering operation, and we’re also going to open a bakery in Whalley.
Country-house hotels are cash-hungry entities. Our guests live in beautiful properties, and expect the same levels of comfort when they are away from home. So we need to provide high-quality facilities to stay ahead of the game: air-con in the bedrooms, in-room entertainment including smart TV with all the sports channels – everyone has got used to finger-tip management.
And our ambition for the main restaurant is to be at the very top of the Harden’s Guide! (Note: Northcote stands at a very creditable number 13 in the 2026 Harden’s 100 list of the UK’s best restaurants).
So it’s a five-year project, and I have committed myself to stay on until I am 70 – I’m 64 now.
HARDEN’S: That’s quite a commitment – you’ve already helped to create a culinary institution here in central Lancashire, which is not what people might think of as a hot destination for tourists.
Well, we’re in a beautiful part of the world that is very close to the geographical centre of the United Kingdom. And the Ribble Valley is full of both old money and new money from the manufacturing centres of south Lancashire – wealthy people have always lived out in the countryside. The villages around here are some of the top places to live in, and there are so many good pubs and restaurants in the area that if you live around here you can eat out well every weekend for a year without going back to the same place.
In fact, the area has a culinary heritage going back to the Eighties or even earlier. Paul Heathcote had his restaurant in Longridge. Alastair Little was from Burnley, Simon Hopkinson from Bury. These days there’s Moor Hall at Aughton [currently no 1 on the Harden’s 100], which is not too far away – and of course Mark Birchall spent time in a senior role at Northcote.
At Northcote, we are 100% a food destination, with 94% of guests staying just for one night. And you’re right, we don’t have any international tourists at all, so we don’t have the advantage of the mega-wealthy that you might attract in other parts of the country. This means we are reliant on a middle-market clientele of all ages: we are multi-generational, often hosting three generations of the same family, which means we have to be youthful and classical at the same time.
There is a real worry with this market at the moment: you can see that people haven’t got the same sort of money to spend that they used to. They can still afford a good family holiday – that’s sacrosanct – but have they got what I call the ‘fun money’, the money that pays for a cheeky midweek dinner out?
I think we’ll be OK, but a lot of good places are going to suffer and even close down in this financial climate.
HARDEN’S: That said, the British dining scene has changed beyond recognition in the past 40 years, and you’ve been very much part of that progress. What directions do you see dining heading in the next few years?
Food has indeed changed enormously – we have 26 years of photographic evidence to prove it, in the pictures we have from every year of Obsession.
My feeling there’s is some resistance to 13/14 course menus. Here at Northcote we offer a 5-course gourmet menu which appeals to our guests and in addition we offer à la carte and a 3-course choice seasonal lunch menu, with the option of 2-courses for those who are looking for a lighter dining option.
But in my view there’s a place for everything. I’ve been going to Bentley’s when I’m in London for as long as I can remember, and I just love its simplicity. It would always be my wife’s first choice if it’s her treat – but if it’s my treat, I’ll go for a chef’s tasting menu.
Funnily enough, if you ask the chefs who take part in Obsession what their favourite meal is, 95% will say steak and chips or pan-fried Dover sole! It’s always something really simple – I don’t know a chef who eats fancy at home. Lisa certainly doesn’t!
(Above: Lisa Goodwin-Allen in the grounds at Northcote)
Obsession runs at Northcote until Sunday 8th February
