Vintage gems in Leicestershire

Never let it be said that we don't get around... The day after getting back from a vintage-hunting (and sea-swimming, chip-eating, bird-watching) break in Somerset and Dorset, during which we covered more than 1,000 miles, we were on the road again, but this time just to our neighbouring counties of Northamptonshire, to top up the stock at our stall in Finders Keepers at Lollyrocket and then over to Leicestershire to collect some pieces we're painting as a commission for a lovely lady named Gill. Of course, we had to pay a visit to Market Harborough, having just read about Amy's Vintage.

Too much loveliness at Amy's Vintage

Amy and Laura

Amy's Vintage is tucked away in Joules' Yard, round the back of Joules, at 55 High Street. Amy sells a great selection of vintage clothes and accessories and gave us a few tips for places to pick up good furniture. It was lovely to meet her and admire her beautiful shop. She has some of the best quality vintage clothes we've ever seen and you really should pay a visit when you're in the area.

The Vintage Experience, Blaby Road, South Wigston

Sewing room at the back...

Our final stop was to see Mel and co at The Vintage Experience in South Wigston. Mel's shop was a little hive of activity when we went in, with plenty of dressmaking going on. Mel's a self-taught dressmaker, which is hard to believe when you see the quality of her work. As well as making and selling vintage-inspired clothes, The Vintage Experience offers classes in dressmaking, silver-working and more and also sells handmade crafts by other local sellers. Mel's been really generous with her support and advice for us over the last few months so it was good to finally meet her face-to-face.

Lovely handmade clothes at The Vintage Experience

Handmade jewellery at The Vintage Experience

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been invaluable to us in the three(ish) years since Reloved Vintage was born and we've been able to connect with some really amazing people, but sometimes it's nice to actually get out there in the real world and meet our fellow small business owners. Both Amy and Mel are an inspiration to us - they've both taken the plunge and turned their passion into a full-time job. We wish them both continued success.

Vintage Mischief, Beccles

The yard outside Vintage Mischief is packed with wonderessness

Prior to our visit to Beccles, our only knowledge of this pretty town was that, according to his book, Alan Partridge has a number of mattresses stored in a lock-up there. We didn't find the lock-up (and we tried), but we did chance upon Vintage Mischief, tucked away behind the main road through the town. Now, we don't always visit vintage stores when we're on one of our vintage-hunting missions. That may sound crazy, but we need to make a profit - and, at a dedicated vintage shop, we're unlikely to be able to buy quality items for anything lower than the price we'd be able to sell them at. However, we like to check out the 'competition' to get ideas on what prices we should be charging, how to display things and so on.

Vintage Mischief, we have to say, has some of the finest vintage items we've come across on our travels. As well as the quality, the sheer quantity was staggering. Split between various rooms of all shapes and sizes, Vintage Mischief sells homeware, furniture, clothes, accessories - just about everything vintage you could imagine.

Milking it

We even bought ourselves a couple of treats - a really cute enamel pan (below) which Laura fell in love with, having had her breakfast beans served in one at our B&B and a HUGE Edwardian hall cupboard which we will relove and sell on (more on that to come, when Laura has finished it). We could easily have missed out on the cupboard, as it wouldn't fit in our trusty RV-mobile, but Vintage Mischief's owner, Simon, happened to be due to pass by our Rutland home that weekend, so offered to deliver it for us. A jolly nice gesture from a jolly nice chap.

We had to have it...

If you're anywhere near East Anglia, it really is well worth a visit. I couldn't believe the quality of some of the homeware and I really wish I'd taken a photo of the brilliant Sgt Bilko board game in the upstairs room full of stuff for chaps. Laura spent an eternity looking through the clothes, too. A fine selection of vintage clobber, plus some outstanding handmade vintage-inspired dresses by local dressmaker Lulumama.

 

Gorgeous vintage-inspired dress from Lulumama

A few days in Suffolk

The White Room's bathroom at Valley Farmhouse

Just back from a few days in Suffolk to celebrate Laura’s birthday (28, as you’re asking). We stayed at a wonderful B&B near Halesworth, not far from the site of the Latitude festival. Valley Farmhouse has two rooms - a large suite and the White Room, where we stayed. Our hosts were perfect - friendly and welcoming, but not overbearing. We were made to feel totally at home, yet still given our own space and time to relax. The White Room is beautifully furnished – as you can see from the photos above and below – and we found it hard to tear ourselves away to go vintage-hunting (we managed it, though).

Our swanky four-poster

Beautiful roll-top bath

Our vintage cases

Lovely wooden furniture

Cute cases are a nice prop

Beccles was probably the highlight, with lots of independent shops and the fascinating Vintage Mischief (more on that later). Southwold’s pier, especially the Under The Pier Show, is great fun, even if the town is over-run with fancy London-types, and it’s incredibly hard to find a fish and chip shop that is open in the evening!
Bungay was also a pleasure to wander around - and was not alone in the area in offering free parking. Why don’t more towns and cities take this approach? It certainly helps to support small businesses (and don’t get me started on parking meters that don’t give change when the price is £1.10 or something else designed to make you overpay. Grrr).
All in all, we had a lovely time, even if we were a little chilly drinking our £1.99 Kir Royale on Southwold beach. And if ever a sentence summed up the great British seaside holiday…

Church of St Edmund, King and Martyr, Bungay

Southwold beach and a £1.99 Kir Royale - that's living