Traditional 'Knobs and Knockers' Shop Opens in Shropshire
With more retailers feeling the proverbial pinch and trying to source their stock overseas to reduce their costs and increase their profit margins, one new Shropshire Company is doing quite the opposite and sourcing UK made products.
Rachel Webb runs The Door Knocker Company. A fascinating shop which has only been open a couple of months. Based at Heather Brae on the A49 a few miles north of Church Stretton, in Shropshire. The Door Knocker Company supplies high quality British made architectural ironmongery, including brass and iron door knockers, finger plates, letter plates, door knobs, key escutcheons, shelf brackets, hooks and wrought ironware.
Rachel said "after selling my wood burning stove shop in Newport and moving to South Shropshire, I decided it seemed a logical and timely move to create an online and retail shop to supply quality British made goods to architects, builders, designers and the public". More and more businesses are combing both a website-shop, and traditional shop – to enhance their customer bases.
The appeal for Rachel working with such a wide range of period styles is the quality of the product "and the related design and period aspects of the items that we sell". Rachel continued "It is also about supporting UK makers and I feel very strongly about buying items from these. There is still a very strong place for British made goods, and more and more customers appreciate that fact."
Rachel has customers all over the globe, including from Australia, America, France and Holland. She continued "we have had orders from Malta, Sweden and Norway".
"We also have a small outlet at Heather Brae on the A49, said Rachel."It's a good opportunity for customers to see the range and quality of the products that we sell".
With many architectural period items for sale, Rachel's own favourite is the Victoria era.
"This was a great time of invention and innovation, and a wide range of designs were developed in this long period. The Georgian period also produced a few real classic designs such as the Lion door knocker that can be seen on what can only be described as one of the most famous doors in the world - Number 10 Downing Street. This elegant solid brass lion's head has adorned front doors for hundreds of years and can only be described as a British classic. The Doctors Knocker was also originally designed and produced in the Georgian period and it is still as popular today as it was then".
The best sellers for The Door Knocker Company are the Lion and Doctors knocker as well as the more unique and novel Bee and Owl knockers. The Owl is a beautifully detailed woodland owl solid brass door knocker. "The Gothic and Ironbridge brackets are popular item too, as well as the range of wrought iron ware with the beeswax finish", continued Rachel.
We all struggle with keeping our brass bright and clean, but "washing the brass with a detergent solution after cleaning will clean off the cleaner and finger prints so there is less dirt for the air to stick to and start the tarnishing process", said Rachel. "We also recommend 'Hotspot' metal polish (which we sell)".
