The Town
Eleven hundred years of good taste
King Alfred founded Shaftesbury and its abbey in 880, set a hundred metres up on a spur of greensand, and the town has been trading ever since — wool, corn, buttons, and eventually the beautiful leftovers of all those centuries. Gold Hill, just around the corner from the shop, is quite possibly the most photographed street in the country.
A town this old produces antiques the way an orchard produces apples. Farmhouses, rectories and cottages across the Blackmore Vale have been quietly holding onto good things for generations. Sooner or later, a fair few of them pass across our counter.
"Every object in the shop has already outlived at least three owners. That's not second-hand — that's proven."
The Shop
Why old things?
Because they were made to last, and did. Because a chest of drawers with two hundred years behind it costs less than a flat-pack one with two years ahead of it. Because the greenest piece of furniture is the one that already exists.
And because every piece carries a story you get to continue. We keep the shop stocked with things we'd take home ourselves — and frequently have to be talked out of.
See the Collection
The kettle's usually on
Seven days a week, in the middle of the High Street. Come in for a browse, a chat, or a second opinion on granny's clock.