Markets on the Green

Young entrepreneur Nash Henshaw is bringing artisan markets to Mayfield.

Organised by the Nash & Dash Collective, Markets on the Green have launched at Mayfield Bowling Club this October with a lovingly curated selection of local artisan makers and traders.

And the man behind the venture, 16-year-old Nash Henshaw has big plans for the future. Wearing a bright yellow fluoro vest and armed with a clipboard he knows exactly what he wants to do. “We want a real partnership with our stall holders,” he tells us.

“We want to support local artisans who may just be starting out with their business. We want to work with them and build our brand together with theirs, to go on this journey together.” Nash certainly doesn’t sound like your average 16-year-old and he admits that some of his schoolmates have been having a sticky beak earlier in the morning.

“I guess they just wanted to see what I have been going on about and whether this is for real.” For Nash, it all started four years ago, when his mum Lisa suggested that Carrington-based florist Jade Mcintosh might need some help sweeping the floors and washing flower vases.

“So off I went, and I got the job,” Nash recalls. His talent for business and commitment to hard work must have been obvious even then as it didn’t take long for Jade to entrust him with running her regular pop-up stalls at local markets.

Fast forward a couple of years and Nash had caught the bug for good, taking Jade up on her offer to take over her pop-up flower shop, rebranding it as Nash & Dash Collective. But once Nash began applying for market stalls himself, he started to wonder whether taking things to the next level might be an even better idea.

“The Newcastle artisan markets are in the CBD or the East End, but there was nothing in Mayfield. I looked at the demographics and saw that a lot of families with young kids are moving here. That’s when I decided to launch a monthly market in Mayfield.”

He reached out to Sally Pontifex, General Manager of the Mayfield Bowling Club and she loved the idea: “The Mayfield Bowling Club has a very long history, going back 80 years. But we are happy to try new things and I loved Nash’s idea and his enthusiasm,” she shares.

Read more about Markets on the Green in the Summer edition of Hunter & Coastal Lifestyle Magazine or subscribe here.

Story by Cornelia Schulze, photography by Bear & Stone and Frank Schulze.
Supported by the Business Improvement Association for Mayfield.