Two new businesses have made Bishops Castle their home.
We catch up with two new shops that have opened on Bishops Castle High Street, next door to each other too.
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00:00So Georgia, we're here in Bishop's Castle and a new business venture for you?
00:04Yes, definitely.
00:06What's it called?
00:07It's called Snowhouse Stitching and I had the idea to open a shop about six weeks ago.
00:12Yeah, so it's going to be a bit of haberdashery, mainly alterations, that kind of stuff?
00:19Yeah, the original idea was repairs and alterations because I've been doing that for seven years
00:25and then I thought actually I love rummaging in my baskets for bits of buttons and zips and things
00:31and other people might like to do that. So we buy and sell haberdashery.
00:36Yeah.
00:36And it's all pre-loved. I do get new stuffing because sometimes you need a better cotton.
00:41Yeah and you're a local girl, you live just down the road there?
00:43Yeah, I live just down the road. I've been in and around Bishop's Castle for 12 years now.
00:48Cool and you were saying, yeah, you've been doing the operating this business from home
00:53kind of for a while, haven't you? You're no stranger to the game as such?
00:56No, no stranger to the game. I started off at Walcott Hall repairing and
01:02mending and making do there and then recently I find I have two workshops in my house,
01:08every cupboard's full of fabric and bits and bobs and it was time to bring it out to the public.
01:13So you've got this business opening here and actually at the same time almost,
01:17we've got a new business next door as well. So Hair and Beauty, is that right?
01:22Yes, we've got Hair and Beauty. It's Emma's, she used to have Bubbles but she's teamed up with a
01:28lovely lady called Tasha and they now do Nails, Beauty and Hair and this whole building originates
01:35from the early 1700s and the landlords at the moment bought it in 1968. They're opening on
01:42Saturday. We had a street party with Buskers and Prosecco and it was just fantastic.
01:48Great stuff. It's a nice close-knit community here at Bishop's Castle, isn't it?
01:52It really is. Everybody looks after everybody else. You can't walk down the street without
01:56having a conversation about everything. I used to run a care business in the town
02:02and I had my snail logo on my t-shirt and you know, you just get to know a lot of people all
02:07across all ages. Where does the snail business come into it then? In 2017, just before the
02:14stitching started, I lived in a static caravan just outside Bishop's Castle and my friend called
02:20it the Snail House and because it rhymed with stitching, it stuck. And there'll be special
02:27t-shirts available with the nice cute snail logo on if people want to get involved. Absolutely.
02:33My friend who lived in the town, his name's Mud, is a tattoo artist and he trained around that time
02:40and I said, Mud, can you tattoo a snail on my ear? And we spent two hours designing the snail
02:46and that's the snail that's on my t-shirt, on my ear, on my new tattoo, on the shop.
02:53And a snail is all about mindfulness and going slowly and thoughtfully and I like to put that
03:00into my work. And there used to be a sewing shop on the Hoy Street but not for a while so it's a
03:05welcome addition for people, isn't it? Absolute welcome addition. The amount of craft clubs that
03:09we have in this town, as I say, for all ages and I want to encourage young people as well and
03:16so I run sewing lessons for young people and they come to me with a project and I
03:22can teach them how to use the sewing machine and it's a really useful tool.
03:39Hello ladies, how are you? Very good, thank you. So you're having your
03:54party done, so you're a customer and Emma, this is your business that you run with
04:00your colleague Tasha? That's right, yes. And so great new addition to the Hoy Street, yeah?
04:05For sure, definitely. Literally just opened? Saturday. How did this Saturday's opening go?
04:12Very good, yeah, really very good. And it's quite exciting for the town, isn't it really? We've got
04:16you and next door. So you'll be offering anything a beauty salon should be offering, is that how it
04:24works? Yeah, everything, hair to nails, to lashes, to toes, everything. Fantastic. And did you have a
04:34business in the area previously? Yes, yeah, I've been in Bishop's Castle 24 years. Wow, okay, cool.
04:43It's just that Tash and I are joining forces. Fantastic, and is she looking after you? Very much.
04:50She is, that's good. Right, well I'll leave you in peace then. Cheers ladies, thank you.
04:58Just checking out the lovely tattoos here,
05:01beautiful work. And it's a bit of a bit of a story as well, a health story as well.
05:06There really is, because this is my other tattoo. Ah, okay, yeah, I recognise that logo. Breast Cancer
05:14Charity. So six or seven years ago, here comes this snail. Two years ago, diagnosed with breast cancer.
05:22Yeah, pretty difficult as everybody knows. Last year, we're getting over it, I get this tattoo,
05:31my friend Mud designs it for me. Yeah, I had to have all my hair cut short and I thought I'm going
05:36to detract attention with my tattoo. Yeah, and then this year my health and fitness came back
05:43and I said we've designed another tattoo and this is an evolution tattoo. Yeah, that goes from the
05:50original snail and this is the healing process. It goes up into the solid snail, which points
05:59towards my heart. But because I'm a lively adventurous sort, the snail has fallen into
06:06a dandelion and all the dandelion seeds are off on an adventure. And this shop is my next adventure.