A visit to Sugden and Daughters

On Saturday we called in to see Louisa at Sugden and Daughters in their fantastic new sales space at the Red Lion pub in Yardley Hastings, Northanmptonshire.

Our paths have crossed online through their Facebook page and as a result of us both having a space at Finders Keepers at Lollyrocket in Kettering, but we'd never met in person.

We'd watched the transformation of the barn in Yardley Hastings as Louisa and husband Mark turned it from unloved shell to rustic showroom,so it was great to see it in person.

The showroom at the Red Lion

We love the rustic pieces

Sugden and Daughters sell a great range of antiques, painted furniture, candles and other vintage splendidness as well as being a stockist of Little Greene paint. Until now they had been concentrating on antiques fairs - and these will still be a key part of the Sugden and Daughters business - but when the opportunity to establish a permanent sale space came up, it was too good to turn down.

Want!

Close-up of the sales desk - soon to be sold!

Laura would have been in this photo,
but she hadn't done her hair...

It's a set-up that works well for both parties - Sugden and Daughters bring in new customers for the pub and the pub opens up a whole new audience to Sugden and Daughters. We'd love to see more of this going on across the country. We're always hearing about how many pubs are closing in the UK every week - it's a staggering number and a real shame, so we have to take our hats off to The Red Lion and Sugden and Daughters for this initiative.

We were only there for an hour or so, but saw just how impressed the customers were with the showroom. Louisa says the customers have been a mixture of villagers and people who have been following them on social media, so the system obviously works.

It was only their second weekend of trading and things are going well, with plenty of sales and a whole bunch of new customers. Louisa and Mark have been working so hard on getting this right that it can only be a success and we wish them all the best for the future.

Go along and take a look for yourself - and buy yourself something so you can say you owned a Sugden and Daughters piece before they were famous...