Meet the Team
Read a review of a class Sarah held at the Crewelwork Company
Sarah Rakestraw
The Owner
Sarah is the owner of Golden Hinde. Her love of gold work and many other embroidery techniques can be seen in each piece of work crafted by her and her enthusiasm shines through when talking about or teaching Goldwork techniques.
“My love of gold work started whilst watching my mum for many years, designing clothes and making costumes for school plays. She worked on a banner for my school for two years, all worked in goldwork this banner is paraded with my old school St Thomas’s every walking day displaying its beauty as it ripples in the sunshine to this day”.
At the age of 14, Sarah studied Textiles GCSE, at which she achieved the highest grade (A). Sarah also attained an Art “A” level and over the years has developed her interest in embroidery and sewing by making and designing her own clothes and patterns.
Sarah also attended University and achieved a degree in business and financial management and as a result is also a Chartered Accountant.
Sarah is married to Stephen and has two children John and William.
Sarah is our in house tutor and runs our regular classes in Warrington dubbed “The Golden Wonders” in which we have a group of ladies who create wonderful masterpieces for pleasure and exhibitions.
Find more information about our regular Goldwork classes. Our classes are very popular but we have a waiting list.
The Golden Hinde Family
Golden Hinde has always been a family run business and we want our employees to feel a part of that family. Our Office Manager Kate joined the team in 2015 and handles the day to day running of the office, attends shows with Sarah and helps with the running of our retreats. Sarah and Kate also attended garment making classes together, at a local sewing school creating clothes and making patterns.
Kate writes all our newsletters and our new BLOG which we started in 2026
Carly joined in October 2024 and her responsibilities include packing your orders and dispatching them in good time, she also looks after a lot of the stock. Carly has started attending our fortnightly classes to gain and increase her knowledge of Goldwork threads and wires as well as the various techniques. Carly has quickly become an integral part of our team.
All of our kits are put together by hand, by members of our packing team.
About our resident tutor - Sarah Rakestraw
Sarah Rakestraw has been teaching Goldwork for over 25 years and is an expert in her field, she has taught in many different settings to different skill levels, from taster classes at the likes of the knitting and stitch show to full week long retreats.
We also hold fortnightly regular classes where lots of stunning work is produced with the help of Sarah, who designs many of the pieces based on what the embroiderer wants to make, this can be taken from a picture as inspiration or an idea from scratch.
In addition, Sarah also hosts special one off classes for others such as Embroiderers Guilds and private classes for Lady Anne’s Needlework and Phillipa Turnbull and her team at The Crewelwork Company.
Georgina Pillsbury from her team wrote a lovely piece about her experience learning Goldwork and of Sarah as a tutor.
Golden Hinde Commissions
Here at Golden Hinde we occasionally take on commissions. At the beginning of 2019 we started on a commission for our local school, Woolston C E Primary to complete a banner.
Golden Hinde Collaborations
Golden Hinde has a very good industry wide reputation, supplying kits and goldwork supplies. We attend the knitting and stitching shows annually in Alexandra Palace London and Harrogate, where we get to see and meet new customers and welcome back customers that we have seen year after year. We love to share our knowledge with everyone from beginners to experts.
Golden Hinde has produced projects for magazines such as STITCH, WORKBOX and for Benton & Johnson plus many other projects.
The Origins of Golden Hinde
Susan Hinde, (everyone called her Sue) was the main inspiration behind Golden Hinde, Sue is Sarah’s mum and sadly she passed away on the 25th May 2022 and is very much missed by the team at Golden Hinde but her legacy is still in the aesthetics of what we do here at Golden Hinde .
Sue was the person who got Sarah interested in Goldwork when over 40 years ago Sue worked on a banner for the School that Sarah and her Brother attended, St Thomas’ in Warrington, this banner as far as we are aware has been used in the Stockton Heath Walking day every year to represent the school and the Children, it could be seen on display in the reception of the school. Back in 1995 Sue was teaching some friends the art of goldwork and back then it was not easy to get hold of supplies especially in smaller quantities, so would buy larger quantities to cut up for her classes. Sarah was training to be a Chartered Accountant at the time and decided that it would be better for this to be a business, supported by Sue, Sarah set up the business Golden Hinde (the name was created from Sue’s surname – Hinde and the Golden as it is obviously Goldwork).
Sue attended many shows over the years accompanying Sarah along with Sarah’s dad Jim, she could often be seen demonstrating goldwork techniques on the stand showing how to do a range of techniques and often allowing people to have a go and encouraging them. Many of our kits were designed by both Sarah and Sue, and many of the samples of the kits that you can see when we attend shows are the originals which were stitched by Sue.
Sue created so many beautiful pieces of work and she was an inspiration to everyone who met her, her talent was amazing and she was a beautiful soul inside and out. She always had a smile for everyone and was more than happy to give advice to those wanting to try Goldwork, she could often be found at shows that we attended demonstrating different techniques and often encouraging the younger ones to give Goldwork a go.