RETAILER SPOTLIGHT


October/November 2025 housewareslive.net


Hargreaves & Sons


Retail Director Kelly Coles-Evans speaks to Will McGill about 160 years of housewares retailing, the enduring legacy of founder Alice Hargreaves, and how authenticity and adaptability continue to shape one of Derbyshire’s best-loved independents.


I


n 1865, a young woman named Alice Hargreaves decided to set up a small table in her father’s grocer’s shop in Buxton and sell china and glassware on the side. It wasn’t an especially glamorous beginning, but it was bold for the era – a time when few women ran businesses in their own right. With a sharp eye for opportunity and an even sharper wit, she built a loyal following among the local townsfolk. On market days she would wheel her table outside onto the cobbles,


greeting shoppers with stories and charm, even when she didn’t technically have a licence to trade there. “She got into trouble more than once,” laughs Retail Director Kelly Coles-Evans, “but that sheer cheek and determination are what built the business. It’s exactly that spirit we still draw from today.” From those humble beginnings grew what is now one of Britain’s longest- standing housewares retailers. 160 later, Hargreaves & Sons continues to trade from its handsome Spring Gardens premises, still selling china and glass – and a great deal more besides. The business remains family-rooted, fiercely independent, and deeply woven into Buxton’s retail fabric.


Milestones The move to Spring Gardens in 1904 marked the first major milestone in


Hargreaves’ evolution. The store quickly established itself as a destination for quality homeware, and in the 1910s, the upstairs “Crystal Showroom” opened to showcase fine glass and tableware to the town’s elite. “It was all


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