COTSWOLD Feature
Little shop of treasures
With her 60th birthday looming and five grown-up children, Harriette Smart wanted to do something that would underpin a family business for the future. While many might be thinking of slowing down a little, she decided to take a leap of faith in a new county with a brand new venture. Sue Smith visited her shop in Nailsworth and discovered an Aladdin’s cave of treasure.
INSPIRED by her grandfather James Lear who had broken away from the family business to take up contract threshing, Harriette upped sticks in Totness, Devon and found herself drawn to the Bohemian nature of Nailsworth. 1909 James had taken with him a traction
engine, threshing drum and driver. Harriette had no such accroutrements, just bags of unfailing hope. “I had driven through the town a few times
and saw this little shop empty,” she says. A counsellor for a legal firm, Harriette’s
only experience in retail was brief and in her early 20s. But her family, especially her three
daughters, had artistic leanings and Harriette also enjoyed up-cycling, old furniture as well as restoration and renovation. So she and her youngest daughter, Polly
opened James Lear of Arundel last year. “I always seemed to find myself the curator
of my grandfather’s brass plate wherever we lived in France, Spain and back again, so we felt compelled to use the name for our new
30 COTSWOLDESSENCE | September - November 2013
business,” says Harriette. The pair gathered together a few
interesting oddments, some choice pieces of furniture that needed attention and opened their doors to the public. “Within a few months most of our
thingshad sold,” said Harriette, “it gave us the encouragement to carry on.“ “We have been made most welcome by the
Nailsworthians since we opened,” says Harriette.
www.cotswoldessence.co.uk
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