Pip’s Patch

Left: A shop window from the past at Milners of Leyburn? This photograph was taken during the Second World War Re-enactment weekend in Leyburn July 17-18 2010. Those who visited the shop after the recent repeat of The Department Store  on BBC TV quickly became aware of how much the shop has been transformed in the past year since David Milner retired.

Come January even the decor of this famous small departmental store will have been altered. But it is  already hardly recognisable compared with the way it looked when it was filmed in 2008 for the BBC’s documentary series, The Department Store. “We are thinking of updating the colours – so watch this space,” said Leonie Garrard, David Milner’s daughter.

She and her husband Keith now run the store and have brought in their very own “Mary Queen of Shops”. Sarah Harbour has worked in the fashion retail business for over 20 years and is helping the Garrard’s revamp Milners of Leyburn. One of their big successes this year is buying in organic cotton clothes by Seasalt. “We have sold out twice since we started bringing in Seasalt – it’s gone fantastically well,” said Leonie.

This autumn they will introduce clothes by another organic cotton company Jackpot. “We are going down the line that people are thinking more of what they are wearing rather just wanting cheap and cheerful. They are thinking is it good for them and is it good for the environment. So we have found these two products which have really nice vibrant colours.  We are definitely appealing to a wider age range. It’s not like in The Department Store – a shop for 60 to 70-year-olds. We are getting a lot younger people coming through the door now, whether it is because we are getting the product right or dressing the window differently.”

Sarah has been involved with changing things around in the shop and bringing in new ideas.  The lingerie and underwear have been moved to the basement from the lower ground floor to make room for an extended range of accessories. Soon the nightwear will also be re-located to the basement. All the bed linen and towels are now on the first floor where the Garrards made new shelving to accommodate it. They have de-cluttered that floor to make the most of their best selling carpets  and have built two mock beds so that bed linen can be better displayed.

This autumn they will move the children’s clothing section into the lower ground floor, replacing it with the accessories, and then introduce “smellavision”. “We are buying into smellies,” explained Leonie. “We have been to other places which have done that. There are a lot of shops likes ours which have a bit of fashion but have the smellies as well. You come in through the door and you can smell it. If a shop smells nice it’s inviting.”

This year Leonie has also been busy raising funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London which helped them when their daughter Eleanor was ill. “I cycled the coast to coast route from Workington to Tynemouth last month and raised nearly £2,000 for Great Ormond Street. It was an amazing experience. And we did a fashion show at the store in April and made about £900 for the hospital.”

But when her parents take advantage of their retired status and go off on a two-month touring holiday in France with their caravan she does miss them. “I am finding it a struggle at the moment because with Mum and Dad away I am having to collect the kids from school every day. It makes the day very disjointed. When both Eleanor and Annabel are here (in the store) it is a riot!” 

David and Linda do occasionally help out at the shop when they are not on holiday. “They have both stepped back from the business,” said Leonie. David has been doing a lot of gardening and painting. “He cleared out the loft in their house, rewired it all and made himself a little painting studio – that’s his little hidey hole,” she added. Early in 2010 David was also able to take part in a charity trip to the Gambia to deliver equipment to the only school for the blind in that country. See  the Journey Blog  and Memories – a Gallery on the Friends of Govi website.

With the way that the Garrard’s are moving forward with the store and the television coverage Milners of Leyburn seems to be riding out the recession and so won’t become one of those forgotten Department Stores. “The Department Store has helped to put us back on the map,” said Leonie.

Below:  A transformed Milners of Leyburn: beds and bed linen; the accessories section; and the de-cluttered carpet department.