SHOPPING Di's objects of desire ME AND MY WARDROBE Kate ...

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12 February 2004 Online: www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk Country House Hotel & Restaurant This superb Jacobean country mansion offers the very best of accommodation, cuisine and service. There are 35 individual bedrooms, a restaurant open 7 days a week and extensive conference, banqueting and leisure facilities. A family run business offering that personal touch. Recently attained English Tourism Council Silver Award The Restaurant: Open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner, Head Chef Austen Shaw and his team offer the best of English and Continental cuisine using the finest local ingredients. The restaurant has a warm and relaxing atmosphere with friendly and professional service. Midweek lunch £9.50 for 2 courses, Sunday lunch £16 for 3 courses and dinner from £22 for 3 courses. Headlam Hall Golf Course This superb 9 hole course is due to open June 2004 and we will be offering an exclusive number of memberships. Constructed to USGA spec on beautiful mature pastureland complete with covered driving range. Headlam Hall , Headlam, Darlington, DL2 3HA Tel: (01325) 730238 www.headlamhall.co.uk fashion Clockwise from above: the shop front; John with a selection of fabrics; the interior of the shop with its selection of lights; Martini Jewel, £25 per metre IN ASSOCIATION WITH If good advice and fantastic fabrics are what you’re after, there’s the perfect shop in the Teesdale market town of Barnard Castle. JENNY NEEDHAM reports Curtain up THE steep hill down to the river in Barnard Castle, known as The Bank, is well known for its pine and antique shops. There’s not much you can’t buy here if you’re furnishing your home in a fairly traditional way. Half way down the slope is what is probably the prettiest shop window in the Teesdale market town. It belongs to Fabtique, a fabric and antique lighting shop, and it’s difficult to resist the temptation to step inside. Behind the twinkling lights, beautiful tapestries and artfully draped linens and cottons is a late 15th, early 16th century building, home to John Purkiss, his wife Jessica, seven-year-old Colleen and three-year-old David. John’s been here 11 years, and has made the run-down shell into a stunning home and business. The fabrics he sells are fairly traditional – after all, his main customers are country folk, generally conservative by nature. And if they want to find something unique for their period properties, John has all the right qualifications. He’s got a long history in the fabric trade: his dad used to sell material at markets in Bishop Auckland, Consett and the Quay in Newcastle, and young John would go along to lend a hand. When his parents parted, Uncle Ernie, a builder by trade, took John under his wing and taught him all the basics of joinery. And along the way, John’s always had a fascination for period, learning which antiques and fabrics look right in which homes. Furniture and architectural restoration were his main living until a trapped nerve made it difficult to do heavy work, so John moved back into the world of fabrics and opened Fabtique. It’s a beautiful, colourful, bazaar-style shop. Three-metre lengths of material drape down along the length of one wall, which customers can borrow to see if they suit. The fabrics cost from £4 to £5 a metre for discontinued roll-ends up to £70 for fancy fabrics such as Linen Union, Crowson, Designers’ Guild and Schumacher. Customers can have anything made up – throws, curtains, bed covers, headboards, pelmets. Every Friday John wanders up town to drop off fabrics to be made up by his two sewing experts. At Fabtique, John aims to sell something different, fairly unique. “Shops on the high street of larger towns are increasingly the same,” he says. “A small market town like this can offer something a bit different and unusual, a different shopping experience, with in-depth knowledge and advice. I’ve been in the trade a long time and I have a good knowledge of fabrics, antiques and periods.” John’s built up a good reputation and sells on the
February 2004 Online: www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk 13 JK WOMENSWEAR 75 Skinnergate Darlington Telephone 01325 463931 Internet all over the country and sometimes abroad. He picks up the lights he sells – all rewired to meet safety standards – at fairs in this country and on regular trips to the Continent. He has pals like Andre in Belgium and Frank in Holland. They meet up every six months and trade. “I buy continental lights off them and they buy English stuff off me,” says John. At the moment he can’t get enough French stuff – “the brass with glass drops that’s so popular at the moment. I’ve got a list of people waiting for them. Of course, you can get something similar on the high street, but my customers know they’ll be getting something unique.” Like many rural towns, traders in Barnard Castle are still getting back on their feet after the foot-andmouth crisis, which killed off the tourist trade for well over a year. But John is determined to do all he can to make the business thrive and the shop has just reopened after a refit. The current craze for interior design has brought him another opportunity. “Bed crowns, the embellishments that hold up the curtains on halftesters, are increasingly popular. No one sells them in the North-East and the ones that are available on the Internet are hugely expensive,” says John, who is setting up a workshop to make them. Nor do his plans stop there. Before leaving, I mention how extraordinarily comfortable is the Knole sofa on which we’ve been sitting chatting. This is another new arm of the business, John explains. He’s teamed up with a furniture maker to offer the sofas for sale. They cost from £800 for a two-seater plus fabric. This one’s destined for an apartment at nearby Rokeby Hall. One thing’s for sure, the new owners will be sitting very comfortably for some time to come… Fabtique, The Bank, Barnard Castle Telephone: (01833) 631338 Opening: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 10am-5pm Pictures: CHRIS BOOTH Saturday, February 14 and Sunday, February 15 2004 at the Yorkshire Event Centre G REAT Y ORKSHIRE S HOWGROUND 9.30am - 4.30pm Promoting Yorkshire food and produce in the region’s local shops, hotels, pubs and catering establishments Information Hotline 01969 666041 www.yiga.co.uk
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