Derek Mathewson is the face of Bangers and Cash, the man who walks into a barn in North Yorkshire and finds a Jaguar under a tarpaulin. Every article about him quotes a net worth of £2 million to £5 million, built on the Mathewsons auction business.
As of 7 October 2026, the Companies House register shows something those articles do not: Derek Mathewson is not a director of the company that runs the auctions, and he does not appear on its register of owners. Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd filed net assets of £3,621,095 at 31 March 2025. It is owned and run by his two sons. The only company Derek is registered to is three months old.
Derek Mathewson at a Glance (October 2026)
- Age: 74 — born October 1951, per his Companies House officer record
- Trading company: Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd (13388081), net assets £3,621,095
- His stake in it: None on the register — owners are sons David and Paul
- His own company: Mathewson’s Media Ltd (17339333), incorporated 14 July 2026
- Family companies in total: 6, spanning three generations
- Mathewsons Auctions Ltd: dormant — it has never traded
- Verified personal net worth: not published anywhere — see below
What this article covers
Derek Mathewson: Basic Information
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Derek Mathewson |
| Born | October 1951 (74) — month and year from his Companies House officer record |
| From | Thornton-le-Dale, North Yorkshire |
| Known for | Bangers and Cash and Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics (U&Yesterday) |
| Family business | Mathewsons, classic car and automobilia auctions |
| Directorships | One — Mathewson’s Media Ltd, incorporated 14 July 2026 |
| Stake in the auction business | Not shown on the PSC register |
| Sons | David Terrence Mathewson (b. 1972), Paul Craig Mathewson (b. 1980) |
| Estimated net worth | No verified figure exists |
Source: Companies House officer, PSC and accounts records, read 7 October 2026.
What the Register Actually Shows
Start with the thing everyone gets wrong. There are six Mathewson companies at Companies House, and Derek is a director of exactly one of them — the newest.
| Company | Number | Incorporated | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd The trading company |
13388081 | 11 May 2021 | David Mathewson and Paul Mathewson, 25–50% each |
| Mathewsons Auctions Ltd Dormant — has never traded |
14934246 | 13 Jun 2023 | David and Paul Mathewson, 25–50% each |
| Mathewsons Motorsport Ltd | 15194069 | 6 Oct 2023 | Paul Mathewson and one other |
| Mathewsons Events Ltd | 16511619 | 11 Jun 2025 | David Mathewson and one other |
| Mathewsons Competitions Ltd | 17059451 | 27 Feb 2026 | Jack Mathewson (b. 1999) and Charles Mathewson (b. 2008) |
| Mathewson’s Media Ltd Derek’s company |
17339333 | 14 Jul 2026 | Derek Mathewson and Vicki Ivens, 25–50% each |
Source: Companies House officer and PSC registers, read 7 October 2026.
Derek does not appear as a director or a person with significant control of Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd. That does not mean he owns nothing: the register only records holdings of 25% or more, so a smaller stake would be invisible. But it does mean the business is not his in the way every net-worth page assumes, and any figure built on “he owns the auction house” is building on sand.
Mathewsons Classic Cars: The Real Numbers
The trading company was incorporated on 11 May 2021 and had no employees in its first short period. By the year to 31 March 2023 it employed 11 people. Three sets of full accounts have been filed since, and they show a business growing fast.
Net assets at 31 March each year, as stated in the most recently filed accounts. Source: Companies House.
Net assets rose from £2,267,870 to £3,621,095 in two years, a gain of about £1.35 million. Retained profits alone went from £872,042 to £2,225,267 over the same period, which tells you the growth came from trading rather than from money being put in.
| Balance sheet item | 31 Mar 2025 | 31 Mar 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Goodwill and other intangibles | £2,409,029 | £2,753,176 |
| Property and equipment | £483,285 | £421,038 |
| Stock (cars held) | £6,550 | £18,250 |
| Debtors | £722,532 | £591,930 |
| Cash at bank | £693,700 | £2,256,316 |
| Owed within one year | (£599,501) | (£2,786,379) |
| Net assets | £3,621,095 | £3,158,331 |
Small-company accounts to 31 March 2025. The directors elected not to file a profit and loss account, so turnover and profit are not public.
The cash movement looks dramatic until you read the line beneath it. Cash fell from £2.26 million to £693,700, but money owed within the year fell almost exactly in step, from £2.79 million to £599,501. An auction house holds client money between the hammer falling and the seller being paid, so both sides of that pair move together. Net current assets actually improved sharply, from £80,117 to £823,281.
One figure is conspicuously absent: turnover. The directors elected not to include a profit and loss account, which small companies may do. So anyone telling you what Mathewsons turns over, or what it earns per auction, is guessing.
What the £3.6 Million Is Actually Made Of
Assets at 31 March 2025 before £94,500 of provisions, giving net assets of £3,621,095. Source: Companies House.
Two thirds of the company’s value is goodwill — £2,409,029 of it. Goodwill is what was paid for the business itself over and above its physical assets, and it is being written down steadily: it stood at £2,753,176 a year earlier. That is an accounting entry, not cash in a bank, and it is the main reason a £3.6 million balance sheet does not mean £3.6 million of spendable wealth.
The genuinely physical part — the saleroom, vehicles and equipment — is £483,285, and it is growing. The stock figure of £6,550 is a reminder of how an auction house works: it sells other people’s cars on commission, so it does not carry millions of pounds of inventory. For what the cars themselves are worth, see our look at Derek Mathewson’s car collection.
A Three-Generation Structure
The most interesting thing in the register is not any single number. It is the shape of the family’s corporate planning, which has been visibly handing responsibility down for five years.
| Generation | Who | What they control |
|---|---|---|
| First | Derek Mathewson (b. Oct 1951) | Mathewson’s Media Ltd only, from July 2026 |
| Second | David Mathewson (b. Jul 1972) | Classic Cars, Auctions, Events |
| Second | Paul Mathewson (b. Jan 1980) | Classic Cars, Auctions, Motorsport |
| Second | Angela Mathewson (b. Dec 1980) | Was a director of Classic Cars; resigned 31 March 2025 |
| Third | Jack Mathewson (b. Nov 1999) | Mathewsons Competitions Ltd, 25–50% |
| Third | Charles Mathewson (b. Jan 2008) | Mathewsons Competitions Ltd, 25–50% |
Source: Companies House PSC and officer registers. Dates of birth are the month and year each person’s filings record.
Mathewsons Competitions Ltd was incorporated on 27 February 2026 with two directors aged 26 and 18, and nobody else on its PSC register. Whatever that company goes on to do, the ownership decision has already been made and filed. Succession in family firms usually happens quietly and years before anyone writes about it; here it is on the public record with dates attached.
Derek’s Own Company Is Three Months Old
Mathewson’s Media Ltd was incorporated on 14 July 2026, registered to an address in Pickering. Derek Mathewson and Vicki Ivens are its two directors and each holds between 25% and 50%. No accounts are due until 2028.
The name and the timing suggest what it is for: the television, personal appearance and media side of his work, separated from the auction business his sons run. That is a sensible structure, and it is also the clearest signal in the whole register of how Derek’s income is organised — as a media career alongside the family firm rather than as ownership of it.
Bangers and Cash and What Television Pays
Bangers and Cash is a UKTV original made for the channel now branded U&Yesterday, narrated since 2019 by the comedian Toby Foster, following the family’s auction business in Thornton-le-Dale. A spin-off, Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics, features Derek, Paul and Dave and was commissioned in October 2021. We cover it in our guides to Restoring Classics and series 14.
Here is the part worth being straight about: no broadcaster publishes presenter fees for a factual series on a digital channel, and UKTV is not covered by the BBC pay disclosure rules. Anyone quoting a per-episode fee for Derek Mathewson has invented it. What can be said is that factual-entertainment fees on channels of this size are measured in hundreds or low thousands of pounds per episode, not the sums paid for primetime terrestrial formats — the real commercial value of the show to the family is the auction business it advertises to a national audience. Our breakdown of UK TV presenter salaries sets out what is and is not disclosed.
So What Is Derek Mathewson’s Net Worth in 2026?
The honest answer is that nobody outside his family and his accountant knows, and here is exactly why.
| What is documented | What is not |
|---|---|
| The trading company holds £3,621,095 of net assets | Whether Derek owns any of it — any stake under 25% is invisible |
| His sons each hold 25–50% of it | Turnover and profit — no P&L was filed |
| He is a director and 25–50% owner of a company formed in July 2026 | His fees from Bangers and Cash and its spin-off |
| Goodwill of £2,409,029 dominates the balance sheet | Property, pensions, savings and his personal car collection |
| Six family companies, three generations | Any dividends drawn over the years |
Company accounts describe a company. They do not describe its directors’ personal wealth.
So: the family business he built and fronts is worth, on paper, about £3.6 million in net assets — of which two thirds is goodwill rather than cash or property. On the public record Derek controls none of that company. He is 74, he has handed the trading businesses to his sons and a competitions arm to his grandsons, and in July 2026 he set up a media company of his own.
That is a far more interesting picture than “£2–5 million”, and every part of it has a filing date. We applied the same method to Hanna Kinsella, Jamie Laing and Molly-Mae Hague, and in each case the register said something the estimates did not.
Where the £2m–£5m Figure Comes From
In the interests of showing our working, these are the pages that carry the figures you will see repeated: The British Report, The London Report, Journal Magazine, BlogZenX and Stories Today, alongside an earlier version of this page.
None of them shows a calculation, cites a filing, or distinguishes between Derek and the company his sons own. They are not dishonest; they are simply repeating a range that entered circulation years ago. We have left the links here so you can check that for yourself rather than take our word for it, and we would rather publish the filings and their limits than add another unsourced number to the pile. The same principle runs through our rankings of the richest UK celebrities, the richest UK influencers and the richest UK entrepreneurs.
Timeline
Final Thoughts
Derek Mathewson is a genuinely successful man whose family firm, on its latest filed accounts, holds £3.62 million in net assets and has grown every year since it began trading. That is the real achievement, and it is documented to the pound.
What the documents also show is that he is not the owner of it. The auction business belongs to David and Paul, the competitions arm to Jack and Charles, and Derek’s own company is three months old. His personal net worth is not public, and we will update this page when a filing changes the picture — not when somebody rounds a guess upwards.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Derek Mathewson’s net worth in 2026?
No verified figure exists. The family’s trading company, Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd, filed net assets of £3,621,095 at 31 March 2025, but Derek is not a director of it and does not appear on its register of people with significant control.
Does Derek Mathewson own Mathewsons?
Not according to Companies House. The persons with significant control of Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd are his sons David and Paul Mathewson, each holding 25–50%. A holding below 25% would not have to be registered, so a smaller stake cannot be ruled out.
How much is the Mathewsons auction business worth?
Its net assets were £3,621,095 at 31 March 2025, up from £3,158,331 and £2,267,870 in the two preceding years. About £2.41 million of that is goodwill rather than cash or property.
How much does Derek Mathewson earn from Bangers and Cash?
It is not disclosed. UKTV does not publish presenter fees and is not covered by the BBC’s pay disclosure rules, so any per-episode figure you see quoted is an invention.
How old is Derek Mathewson?
He is 74. His Companies House officer record gives a date of birth of October 1951.
Who runs Mathewsons now?
His sons David Terrence Mathewson and Paul Craig Mathewson are the directors and registered owners of the trading company. A third generation, Jack and Charles Mathewson, incorporated Mathewsons Competitions Ltd in February 2026.
Is Mathewsons Auctions Ltd the company that runs the auctions?
No. Despite the name, Mathewsons Auctions Ltd has filed dormant accounts every year since it was incorporated in 2023, meaning it has not traded. The trading company is Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd.
What is Mathewson’s Media Ltd?
A company incorporated on 14 July 2026 with Derek Mathewson and Vicki Ivens as directors, each holding 25–50%. It is the only company Derek is registered to. No accounts are due until 2028.
Disclaimer: Company facts and figures are taken from filings at Companies House for Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd (13388081), Mathewsons Auctions Ltd (14934246), Mathewsons Motorsport Ltd (15194069), Mathewsons Events Ltd (16511619), Mathewsons Competitions Ltd (17059451) and Mathewson’s Media Ltd (17339333), read on 7 October 2026. Balance sheet figures are as stated in the most recently filed accounts. Small-company accounts do not disclose turnover, profit, directors’ pay or dividends, and company net assets are not personal wealth. Nothing here is financial advice.