Happy Spring!
March 14, 2010
As I sit here, typing from our retail outlet near Church Stretton in Shropshire it definitely looks like Spring has finally sprung!
Blue skies over the Caer Caradoc and Lawley Hills, Spring lambs dotting the landscape like white full stops, and an abundance of snowdrops. Lovely!
We have been busy here at Wilstone – having aleady done the first show of 2010 – the Spring Fair at the NEC., in Birmingham. We took a huge range of our iron kadai firebowls with us, and they went down a storm! Our firebowls are the outdoor trend for this year, so if you’d like one, order it now before they run out, which they will! Telephone us on 01694 771800.
The shop is now packed to the rafters with new stock, from opium sofa benches to the most wonderful ornately carved mirrors, delicious fabrics, beautiful antique furniture and so much more!
So, if you are travelling along the A49 in Shropshire, look out for Wilstone House and Gardens!
Wilstone House and Gardens
October 10, 2008
The Fairtrade ethos is now making more of an impact on the nation, with most customers being aware that purchasing items under the Fairtrade banner means that the workers have been paid a fair rate. Scan along any supermarket shelves and you are bound to see chocolates, coffee, tea, and dried fruit – but an eccentric husband and wife team based in Shropshire has taken Fairtrade to an entirely different level.
Christo McKinnon’s roots lay firmly in the antique business, until he and his milliner wife Kate decided to buy a rambling Georgian house with dilapidated barns amid the glorious Shropshire Hills. The McKinnon’s had previously spent many months travelling Asia and found a myriad of interesting and unusual items that they felt would enhance homes and gardens within England.
Christo researches traditional and functional designs in iron and stone, and commissions the highly skilled and fairly paid masons and ironworkers in India to re-create his designs. Christo also visits the production sites and talks to the workers ensuring that they are getting a decent wage with good working conditions.
With the house bought, many months of ‘Fairtrade’ research and the business plan in place, Wilstone House and Gardens was formed.
Christo and Kate travel to India and source items of interest that are then shipped back to England in huge crates. Each crate represents a possible logistical nightmare, with many suppliers having to coordinate production and packing for the shipping date. But, once the container arrives, having been precariously driven around the tight lanes inhabited by the fearless chickens of Wilstone, it is like Christmas.
Hundreds of boxes and crates, miles and miles of brightly coloured shredded paper wrapping Cobalt blue ceramics, hand crafted stone troughs, jali panels in all shapes and sizes, fountains made of shiny white sparkly marble, old market cart wheels, symbolic shrines and temples that would have been disregarded on the streets of India, delicately hand carved wooden panels of all shapes and sizes depicting Peacocks, traditional floral designs, horses, Indian Gods and Deities and many carvings stemming from the period of the Raj. Victorian Tiles, taken from their original setting and turned into Coat Hooks. Iron Gazebos shrouded in bubble wrap, a pair of stately looking hand carved Lions, Stone benches shining a pale golden yellow in the afternoon sunlight.
In a small hamlet, amid the hills of Shropshire, there are busy people organising and planning for their next trip abroad, to bring back many, many more fascinating and unusual things to delight and enhance the homes and gardens of England.
Wilstone House and Gardens Retail Shop, Shropshire
October 2, 2008
Wilstone House and Gardens Retail Shop, Shropshire
If you are looking for gifts, decorative accessories, furniture or architectural pieces, you can be sure of something unique and original at the Wilstone shop. From fabrics to antique furniture, marble topped tables to antique tribal candlestands, you will always find something in Wilstone’s ever changing stock range.
A small sample of the Wilstone House and Gardens stock includes: hand turned old Ghee Pots, dowry chests, writers boxes, hand carved bajot tables in all shapes and sizes, stone spice racks (ideal for holding eggs or candles) hand carved wooden chapatti plates, print blocks, candle stands in iron, wood and stone, hand painted settles, tables, book cases and bedside cabinets and much, much more.
Wilstone House and Gardens Retail Shop - One of the four large display rooms
Let Wilstone Inspire your Imagination
Four huge rooms and outside display area and compound full of large and small, new and antique items, plus friendly shop staff here to advise or assist with your purchases.
On display in the Wilstone compound you will find garden furniture, hand carved sandstone, wall sconces, old water channels, planters, pots, terracotta amphoras in all shapes and sizes, troughs, gates, wall planters and more.
Opening Times
Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm,
Sundays and Bank Holidays 11am – 4pm
Wilstone House and Gardens, Heather Brae, Leebotwood, Church Stretton, Shropshire. SY6 6LU.
Tel: 01694 751747
