Keeping a close eye on the tides
Susan Ross was born in Berwick-upon-Tweed on the Scottish/English border, “a small town where everybody knows each other. Living there made me understand how local communities work.” The family business on nearby Holy Island – a winery called Lindisfarne Mead – is part of an even smaller community, where weekly changes in the high tide times have an impact on staff shift patterns and when deliveries can be made.
“You had to plan ahead to receive materials such as glassware to the winery and get the finished product off the island for sale elsewhere,” she says. The business also sells regional produce including cheese and beer from North Yorkshire, and Susan – who worked there weekends and holidays – remembers racing out and back to buy goods from a wholesaler; leaving just enough time to get off the island again before the road closed.
Susan enjoyed geography at school, studied tourism and marketing at university, and secured a job with the charity Nottinghamshire Rural Community Council as a regeneration officer, working with town and parish councils on efforts to reduce social exclusion and increase community engagement.
After two years she joined North Kesteven District Council in Lincolnshire to become a community partnerships manager, where she helped secure funds to boost community infrastructure and tourism development and award funding to deserving causes. These included building community facilities and supporting transport schemes such as Dial-a-Ride. She also supported the delivery of the Local Strategic Partnership: the strategy and community direction of the authority and its partners.
After their son was born, Susan and her husband decided to return north to be closer to family, and she worked part time as a freelance community consultant. One of her early projects involved a return to Holy Island to help with planning and funding for a new village hall. In 2020 she took on a voluntary role as director of community interest company JLJ, and two years ago started work with consultant Edge Innovation to apply human centred design thinking to services, technology and products to business of all sizes including small companies involved in transport and social enterprise.