Tel: 01754 820593
Tel / fax: 01472 822979
Charity Shop
Our shop is located in Alford and is run by volunteer Manager Wendy Joiner ably assisted by her team of volunteers. The trustee responsible for the shop is Paul Bryan.
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 10am to 3pm
Saturday: 10am to 1pm
Sunday: Closed
Where is it?
2 - 4 Market Place
Alford
LN13 9DZ
The
Tale of the Bric-a-Brac Fairy
Once upon a time many years ago a bric-a-brac fairy and her greyhound moved into a cave just outside the sleepy little market town of Alford in deepest rural Lincolnshire. She started to look around for a ‘suitable cause’ which needed the help of a fairy god-mother. As she was reading the paper one day she saw a photo of a wedding where the main guests were greyhounds who lived in a Sanctuary in the fens. ‘Perfect’ she said to Sylvester, who raised an eyebrow and carried on chewing his pigs ear ‘ I will gather lots of bric-a-brac and I will sell it from table tops in all the local villages’
When she had been doing this for many months and endured all sorts of weather the fairy god-mother had an idea and decided to go to a meeting of the goblins who ran the Sanctuary ‘If you will rent a little grotto in Alford I will get a team of elves together and we will turn peoples unwanted treasures into gold to keep the greyhounds full of food and happy.’
So the bric-a-brac fairy worked seven days a week gathering and sorting all manner of things in her cave, nothing was turned away pots, pans, ornaments, tea sets, toys were all arranged in the grotto for the elves to sell. People came from all over Lincolnshire to bring bric-a-brac and to buy a treasure to take away with them. They said how nice it was to help the poor dogs and some even adopted a Fen Bank greyhound after visiting the grotto and talking to the fairy god mother and her elves.
Months turned into years and the bric-a-brac fairy kept gathering and sorting and gathering and sorting until she had filled two rooms of her cave. With no more room she had to buy a shed to keep all the things in before she could turn them into gold. She went back to the goblins and said ‘I need a bigger grotto, I have no room to display all my treasures and I am having trouble getting in my cave!’ So the head goblin looked around the town and found a big grotto on the south of the market place.
The bric-a-brac fairy was delighted. ‘I now have room to sort more treasures and turn them into more gold for the greyhounds.’ The elves were all very happy because they had somewhere to make cups of refreshing brew. The people were all very happy because they had more room to look round and lots more treasures to buy. The greyhounds were happiest of all because it meant they could continue to get the best of everything!
And so the fairy tale continues, lots of wonderful people from near and far continue to bring their unwanted items and the magical bric-a-brac fairy Wendy Joiner, with help from elves Gaynor Kirby and Eileen Gilbard, continues to sort through black sacks, boxes, bags, books and mountains of newspaper to unearth treasures for the rest of the elves, Lynda Gray, Paula Thwaite, Pat Chambers, Ann Hill, Charlotte Bradshaw, Wendy Smith, Rosemarie Waite and Pam Stainton to turn into gold in the grotto.
Such is the fame of the bric-a-brac fairy that people are convinced she can turn anything into gold including broken toys, broken pots, garden rubbish, shoes with holes in, books with pages missing and some very dirty, smelly clothes! So the fairy godmother sorts all these things into piles. A big pile for one of the goblins to take away twice a week to recycle as much as possible and another big pile for the Rag Wizard to pick up once a week in exchange for gold.
The goblins continue to be extremely grateful to the fairy godmother and her elves for giving their time and effort totally free so that all the gold goes to feed and house the greyhounds out in the fens. The greyhounds are very content because it means they have a safe place to live and can look forward to someone giving them a sofa to sleep on and lots of cuddles so they can live happily ever after.
Jill Kirby