Meet the team
Martyn James
Proprietor And Saddle Fitter
Martyn, the owner of Penfolds Saddlery, was brought up surrounded by ponies from an early age with his mother Kathleen being a celebrated breeder and judge of Welsh ponies.
He trained as a saddler at Cordwainer’s Technical College back when it was based in Hackney in the East End of London.
At twenty one he purchased Penfolds Saddlery in Cuckfield from the Penfold brothers Ralph and Frank who had run the shop for many years along with their wives Nora and Eileen. The business was established in 1885 by their father.
Martyn always had a vision of how he wanted to be out on the road specialising in fitting saddles and has expanded that side of the business so that is his full time occupation. It is not unusual for him to end up working a ten to twelve hour day, such is the demand for his expertise and his calm, professional manner.
Tessa Hopcroft
Bench Saddler And Diary Secretary
Tessa grew up in a non-horsey family, learning to ride from the age of nine at a local riding school. By the time she was sixteen she owned her first horse and has had one as part of the family ever since.
Tessa’s first love is eventing having competed up to intermediate level in the past. These days she is happy competing at BE90 level with her beloved Irish Sports horse, Pepper. She has also competed at affiliated dressage and show jumping as well as county level showing so has a broad range of knowledge in all of these disciplines. She also can be regularly seen volunteering at BE events around the South East either in cross country control or fence judging.
Tessa and Martyn first met when training as saddlers at Cordwainer’s Technical College back when it was based in Hackney in the East End of London. She briefly had her own saddlery shop before joining Martyn as a saddler to Penfolds six months after he purchased the business.
Having worked at Penfolds for well over thirty years Tessa has an enviable knowledge of the saddle makes and models that we supply now and that we have in the past as well as all the different options of extras that are available to order.
Although Tessa does still complete the saddlery repairs, more of her time these days is spent on admin, running Martyn’s diary, the website and ordering and collating saddles. She is usually to be found with her small pack of dogs for company.