Angus Ashworth is one of the most recognisable faces in British antiques television, yet he remains, first and foremost, a working auctioneer from a small North Yorkshire market town. Viewers know him from The Yorkshire Auction House, where he clears cluttered homes and sends forgotten treasures under the gavel, but his story runs much deeper than a television format. It takes in a boyhood spent hunting for militaria on the North York Moors, four years learning the trade in a Scarborough saleroom, two operational tours with the British Army, and the slow construction of a thriving independent auction business out of an old car garage. This article looks at his life, his work, his family and the questions people most often ask about him.
Early Life in Farndale and a Boyhood Love of History
Ashworth grew up in Farndale, a quiet valley in the North York Moors, and his fascination with old objects arrived long before any thought of a career. From around the age of twelve he was attending antiques fairs and auctions, buying as many powder flasks as he could find simply because he found them captivating. The spark, by his own account, came from the screen. He has said that his interest in militaria came from watching Sharpe on television, and that this interest led him both into the army and into the antiques trade. yorkshirepostPBS
He funded that early habit himself. As a teenager he worked in the village pub in Farndale and sold eggs from his chickens at the roadside to raise money to attend sales at David Duggleby’s auction house in Scarborough. He also grew up around the trade, having spoken about parents with an interest in antiques and an uncle who worked in the business. It was a thoroughly practical apprenticeship in looking, handling and bidding, served years before anybody paid him for it.
Leaving School at Sixteen to Learn the Trade
His enthusiasm turned into employment remarkably early. A love of antiques earned him a work experience placement at David Duggleby’s Auctioneers in Scarborough, and after leaving school at sixteen he went straight to the firm as a porter in the salerooms before working his way up to auctioneer and valuer. He began there on his sixteenth birthday, after leaving Ryedale School, moving into a bedsit in Scarborough to start learning his trade. He stayed with Duggleby’s for four years. yorkshirepostyorkshirepost
It was an unusually young start even by the standards of a trade that has always valued hands-on experience over formal qualification. He remains, in his own description, a self-taught auctioneer, and he has expressed concern about the lack of structured routes into an industry that continues to grow. Restlessness eventually set in, though. By the age of twenty he had decided he wanted to do something else entirely. yorkshirepost
The Army Years in Iraq and Afghanistan
That something else was the armed forces. After his early years in the trade he joined the family business in marine engineering and then joined the Territorial Army, which saw him called up for service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has dated those deployments to Iraq in 2004 and 2005 and Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009. Describing the period himself, he has said he was in the Reserve Forces and completed two tours, in Iraq and Afghanistan. nmplivePBS
Specific details beyond this are not on the public record. His precise rank, regiment and any medals he may hold have never been publicly confirmed, and confident claims about them found online do not trace back to a verifiable source. What is beyond doubt is that the experience shaped his professional identity. His pre-existing passion for militaria drew him toward soldiering in the first place, and it returned the favour afterwards: militaria remains one of his core specialisms, alongside railwayana and general antiques, and his saleroom runs dedicated military sales that draw serious collectors.
Building Ryedale Auctioneers from a Former Car Garage
The pull of the auction room never really faded, and his father encouraged him to return to it professionally. With the continued support of his wife Gemma, he launched Ryedale Auctioneers in 2010. He came back to Kirkbymoorside that year and bought the site that would become the auction house, a former car garage, and over the following fifteen years expanded by acquiring an old milk tanker depot and a funeral directors’ premises. yorkshirepost
The growth has been substantial for an independent regional firm. He now employs thirty-three people. The business hosts regular antiques, collectables, vintage, furniture and picture sales alongside specialist auctions, and sells in excess of twenty thousand lots a year. Its published selling fees list a sellers’ commission of twenty-one per cent including VAT, sellers’ insurance of 1.2 per cent, a lot fee of £5.90, and a buyers’ premium of 29.9 per cent on its monthly antiques and collectables sales. theyorkshireauctioneerryedaleauctioneers
One decision proved unexpectedly shrewd. Because Ryedale had already embraced online catalogues and live internet bidding, the business emerged from the pandemic stronger rather than weaker, with most sales now reaching buyers in around fifteen different countries. As he has put it, a buyer in Hong Kong does not care whether an item sits in London or on the North York Moors.
The Road to Television Fame
His media career began quietly and almost by accident. His expertise brought him work with the online arm of Cash in the Attic, and his charisma then caught the attention of producers, leading to appearances on programmes including Antiques Road Trip. He has been refreshingly frank about why the BBC came calling, explaining that he was approached out of the blue because the programme wanted somebody younger, and he was in his thirties with salerooms of his own at an age when that was rare. yorkshirepost
The breakthrough arrived in 2021. The Yorkshire Auction House, produced by STV Studios, followed him travelling the country helping clear homes of trinkets, collections and heirlooms before the finds went under the hammer at his Ryedale saleroom, and its first season became one of the best-performing original commissions of 2021 for the Really channel before the show later moved to Quest. More than 140 episodes later it had found audiences in thirty countries, from Denmark to Australia. The workload is relentless: he and his crew cover roughly sixty thousand miles a year driving to house clearances. stvstudios
Celebrity Guests and the Wider Family of Shows
Success brought rapid expansion. Two further ten-episode series and five hour-long celebrity specials were commissioned, and across the first series participants made more than £100,000 at auction on everything from Beatrix Potter figurines to a Bechstein piano. The format also produced Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House, The Edinburgh Auction House and The Derbyshire Auction House. yorkshirepoststvstudios
Celebrity guests have included Craig Revel Horwood, Jon Culshaw, Catherine Tyldesley, Christopher Biggins, Claire Sweeney, Rav Wilding, Wayne Sleep, Jodie Kidd and John Sergeant, with later runs adding Anthea Turner, Simon Gregson, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Amanda Barrie, Dom Joly and others. One widely remembered episode saw the late Ann Widdecombe give him a guided tour of her Devon bungalow near Haytor while selling personal items. north yorkshires angus ashworth on celebrity yorkshire auction house with stars including strictly come dancings craig revel horwood and coronation streets catherine tyldesley 3449122 +2
Ashworth believes the celebrity version works because it removes the performance. Seeing people in their own homes rather than in their television persona, he has said, reveals a different side of them. He is equally clear that the parent show succeeded because it was about people and their stories rather than about profit, even though the money is visible.
Yorkshire Heritage Hero and the Vintage Biplane
His most recent series marks a shift in purpose. Angus Ashworth: Yorkshire Heritage Hero first aired in November 2025 and follows him on a mission to help preserve Yorkshire’s historic stately homes, using his auctioneering and house-clearance skills to find items that can be sold to fund restoration and repair work. He spends weekends with aristocratic owners of houses steeped in history who now face enormous financial pressure from the cost of maintaining grand but outdated properties. imdbairtv
The featured houses include Newburgh Priory near York, which has Oliver Cromwell’s body buried in the attic and serious maintenance problems, Carlton Towers with its 126 rooms, Scampston Hall in Ryedale, Thirsk Hall, whose owner won the house in a family card game, and Birdsall House, which has a nightclub in the basement. The series was originally announced under the working title Angus Ashworth’s Yorkshire Country House Weekend, with the premise that he would visit the estates in a vintage Tiger Moth biplane. That aircraft explains the episode descriptions in which he flies into one hall and touches down at another, though there is no public confirmation that he holds a pilot’s licence himself. applethescarboroughnews
Wife, Children and a Carefully Guarded Private Life
Ashworth is married to Gemma, reported as Gemma Mawman, and the couple live in a bungalow in rural Kirkbymoorside with their three children. The Yorkshire Post reported in November 2021 that they had then been together for nineteen years, placing the start of their relationship around 2002, long before the auction house, the television work or the army tours that came between. hellomagazineyorkshirepost
Their wedding has never been publicly documented. Reporting on the couple has noted directly that the exact date of their marriage is not known, and no photographs or accounts of the day have ever been released. The same restraint applies to their children. He was described as a father of three in 2021, and although he occasionally shares pictures of country days out, he is notably private about his family. Their names and ages are not in the public domain, and the family lives immediately beside the auction house. Antiques Road Trip: who is Angus Ashworth’s wife Gemma Mawman? +2
Wealth, Public Service and Life in Kirkbymoorside
Questions about his fortune are among the most common asked about him, and the honest position is that no verified figure exists. His television fee has never been disclosed, and the various sums circulating online carry no methodology or source. What can be said is that his income is drawn from identifiable places: auction commissions on more than twenty thousand lots a year, valuations, house clearances, ownership of a business employing thirty-three people, presenter fees across several series, and regular paid work as an after-dinner speaker and charity auction host at events ranging from small community gatherings to large black-tie awards ceremonies. Company turnover and personal wealth are not the same thing, and only the former is even partly visible. performingartistes
He has also given time to his community. He served as mayor of Kirkbymoorside for three years, and council records show a Councillor Ashworth holding that office across three consecutive years in the late 2010s. He regards the town’s television profile as a genuine economic asset, arguing that visitors drawn by shows filmed locally spend money in the area, and that businesses do well to look after one another.
Conclusion
Angus Ashworth’s appeal is not manufactured. He is a genuine tradesman who started as a saleroom porter at sixteen, left the industry for the army and returned to build a substantial business from a disused garage, and who happened to prove very watchable when a camera crew began following him around. He has said himself that he is an auctioneer before he is a presenter, and that the television work is a by-product rather than the plan. That order of priorities shows on screen. Whether he is valuing a Commando dagger, coaxing a reluctant aristocrat into parting with surplus furniture, or handling the raw emotion of a family clearing a late parent’s home, the job remains what it always was: knowing what things are worth, and understanding why they matter to the people who own them.
