Watch the early series of Bangers & Cash and there is always someone at a desk while the Mathewsons are out in a barn getting excited about a rusted Ford. That was Sarah Crabtree, the office manager who made the auctions actually function. She left in May 2021, and what she did next is far more interesting than most people who leave a hit show manage.

Sarah Crabtree: Quick Facts

Name	Sarah Crabtree
Known for	Bangers & Cash on U&Yesterday
Role	Office manager at Mathewsons, Thornton-le-Dale
Responsibilities	Auction entries and customer contact
Left the show	May 2021
Now	Director of Evoke Classics
Co-director	Joanne Lawrance
Evoke Classics	Classic car auction and community website
Related to the Mathewsons?	No — she was an employee, not family
Where she worked	Thornton-le-Dale, North Yorkshire
Age	Not publicly confirmed
Net worth	No verified figure exists

Who Is Sarah Crabtree?

Sarah Crabtree was the office manager at Mathewsons in Thornton-le-Dale, the North Yorkshire auction house at the centre of Bangers & Cash. She managed auction entries and dealt with customers, which made her one of the most-seen faces in the early series after the family themselves. Our guide to the Bangers and Cash cast covers the Mathewsons; Sarah was the person keeping the paperwork upright behind them.

The Job Nobody Films Properly

It is worth explaining what an office manager at an auction house actually does, because television skips it. Every vehicle entering a sale has to be logged, described, photographed and catalogued. Reserves have to be agreed with owners. Buyers have to be registered, invoiced and chased. Transport has to be arranged for cars that often do not run. Multiply that across a hundred lots per sale and you have a serious operation that fails instantly if one person stops doing it properly.

Why Viewers Warmed to Her

Audiences noticed her because she was the counterweight. Derek and his sons are out in barns being enthusiastic about rusty cars; somebody back at the office is working out whether any of it is legal, insured and paid for. That contrast is one of the show’s better jokes, and it is entirely real. Anyone who has worked in a small business will recognise the person who quietly holds the whole thing together while everyone else has ideas.

Leaving the Show in May 2021

She left the programme in May 2021, which surprised a lot of regular viewers. People form attachments to the background figures on shows like this, sometimes more than to the leads, and her departure was noticed and asked about at the time. She had been part of the operation through the series that turned Mathewsons from a regional auction house into a nationally known business.

What She Did Next: Evoke Classics

What she did afterwards is the genuinely interesting part. She became a director of Evoke Classics alongside Joanne Lawrance, building a classic car auction and community website. Rather than leaving the world entirely, she went and built something in it. That is a considerably bolder move than staying in a job that came with a television camera attached.

Why an Online Classic Car Platform Makes Sense

The timing was sound. Classic car buying has shifted enormously towards online platforms, where a seller can reach the whole country rather than whoever can physically attend a saleroom on a Saturday. Photographs, detailed condition descriptions and running commentary do a lot of the work a viewing day used to do. For a person who spent years cataloguing and describing cars accurately, it is close to a perfect fit.

The Community Side

The community element matters as much as the auction mechanics. Classic car ownership runs on shared knowledge: which specialist can rechrome a bumper, where to find a part for a car nobody made after 1974, whether a particular model is a nightmare underneath. A platform that hosts that conversation becomes useful to owners between sales, not just when they are buying. That is a harder thing to build than a listings page.

From Office to Boardroom

Going from office manager to company director is a real jump in responsibility. A director is legally accountable for the business: filings, solvency, acting in the company’s interests. It is the same step Dave Mathewson and Paul Mathewson took at Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd. Doing it at a new venture, without the safety net of an established family firm, carries considerably more risk.

Is She Related to the Mathewsons?

This gets asked constantly, so plainly: no. Sarah Crabtree is not a Mathewson and is not related to the family. She was an employee at the auction house. The confusion is understandable, because Bangers & Cash is so thoroughly a family show that viewers assume anyone who appears regularly must be a relative. Several of the regular faces, including the workshop mechanic Dave Dryden, are colleagues rather than family.

The Business She Left Behind

Mathewsons has grown considerably since she left. Mathewsons Classic Cars Ltd was formally incorporated in May 2021, the same month she departed, and the business now operates from Pickering with a showroom at Roxby Garage in Thornton-le-Dale holding over a hundred vehicles. The spin-off Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics launched the following year and has run for four series.

What Her Story Says About the Show

Her arc is a useful corrective to how these programmes are usually described. The Mathewsons are the story, but a business selling a hundred cars a sale is not run by four men and a gavel. There are office staff, mechanics, photographers, transport drivers and cataloguers, almost none of whom get a caption. Sarah was one of the few who became visible, and even she was frequently assumed to be family.

The Wider Classic Car Boom

She has worked through a genuine boom in accessible classics. Cars that were worthless twenty years ago, ordinary Fords, Rovers and Austins, now sell for real money because buyers are chasing memories rather than investments. It is the same nostalgia economy that drives personalised number plates in the UK and that fills Derek Mathewson’s own collection with British commercials nobody else wanted.

Where It All Happens

The auction house she worked at sits in Thornton-le-Dale, a village on the edge of the North York Moors about three miles east of Pickering. It has become a genuine destination since the show began, with a car and coach park nearby for over three hundred vehicles. Our guide to where Bangers and Cash is filmed has the practical detail if you want to visit.

What Is Her Net Worth?

No verified figure exists and we are not going to publish one. She was a salaried employee and is now a director of a private company, neither of which produces public financial information about an individual. Sites offering a number are guessing, exactly as they do with Derek Mathewson and with almost everyone else in this trade. What is verifiable is the job, the departure date and the company.

Final Thoughts

Sarah Crabtree did the job nobody films: logging the cars, chasing the buyers and making sure a hundred-lot sale did not fall apart. Then she left in May 2021 and went and built a classic car platform of her own. That is a better ending than most background figures on television get, and it is worth knowing about the next time you watch the early series.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Sarah Crabtree from Bangers and Cash?

She was the office manager at Mathewsons auction house, handling auction entries and customers, and appeared regularly in the earlier series.

When did Sarah leave Bangers and Cash?

She left the programme in May 2021, after appearing through the series that made Mathewsons a nationally known business.

What does Sarah Crabtree do now?

She became a director of Evoke Classics, a classic car auction and community website, alongside Joanne Lawrance.

Is Sarah Crabtree a Mathewson?

No. She is not related to the family. She was an employee at the auction house, which viewers often assume means family on a show like this.

What did Sarah do at Mathewsons?

She managed auction entries and customer contact as office manager, cataloguing vehicles, agreeing reserves and handling buyers.

What is Sarah Crabtree’s net worth?

No verified figure exists. She has not discussed her finances and her company is private, so any published number is a guess.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information. Details come from published reporting and company information. Where a fact such as age is not publicly confirmed, we say so rather than estimate. We do not publish net worth figures without a verified source.