Our Story

Since taking over ownership of White Orchard in February 2019 George and I have slowly made changes that not only reflect the interests and requests of our customers, but that help us serve our customers and our community better. 

When faced with being closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, we decided to roll up our sleeves and tackle some much needed maintenance work. We put a fresh coat of paint on all of our displays at the back of the shop, as well as the shop front, and reorganised our storage spaces to make it easier to find what we are needing in a hurry. We also launched an e-commerce website on 5 May 2020 and directly afterward we rebranded the business, introducing a beautiful new logo packed with special meaning. The introduction of the website also means we now have a way to track our inventory from the time it is ordered until the time it is sold. That feature alone has many positive impacts that allow us to serve everyone better. 

Since then, we've taken a great interest in finding local creators making beautiful things we know our customers will love. Wendy Bell Designs is one such artist we are very happy to have met. Wendy lives in Shrewsbury and works from her home studio. Her work with alcohol inks is stunning. She makes beautiful artwork that can be matted and framed or digitized for her use in developing other products. One way in which she uses her artwork is to create unique, one of a kind pieces of fashion jewellery that our customers love. In addition to her jewellery, we also sell several ranges of her greeting cards, as well as her latest collection of 100% recyclable notebooks, perfect for your handbag. We have also been furtunate to further develop our relationship with Amy from Kingdom Crafting and have begun selling some of her sterling silver jewellery. Her husband, Jacob, is a carpenter and together we designed bespoke branded jewellery displays for the shop. This allows our jewellery offerings to really shine in a unique way and has increased our capacity for what we can offer our customers. 

We are also proud to be the sole Shrewsbury stockist for Gatcombe Candle Co. Their soy wax candles and other products are a favourite of our customers. The scents are unique and varied, making it nearly impossible to not fall in love with at least one them! Their entire collection is made in Oswestry, just 18 miles from our shop, meaning there is no shipping involved with receiving their orders. George and I simply stop by on our way home one evening and bring the order with us to the shop the next day. 

Finding incredible local makers like Wendy Bell Designs, Kingdom Crafting, and Gatcombe Candle Co not only ensures we are supporting exceptional Shropshire makers, it helps us reduce our own carbon footprint by reducing the number of delivery vans that have to come to our shop. We absolutely love how this enhanced our efforts to be as environmentally conscience as we possibly can. 

One thing that will never change at White Orchard is our desire to provide the very best in customer service to everyoe who shops with us. Whether you are an in-store or online customer, we want to provide you with the best service possible. We hope in turn our customers will enjoy their time with us and think of us in the future.