AFTER THE FLOODS

OPEN

I really didn’t expect to see this sign hanging this week to be honest after the devastating floods that hit our beautiful town of Hebden Bridge on Friday 22nd June. If you’ve seen my previous post on it and follow up on the cleaners, and everything else posted on the internet by others tragically hit, then you will understand the enormity of what happened. If you live locally you will also no doubt have been part of the great clean up operation that began at first light on Saturday 23rd June. I myself had many kind offers of help pouring in for the whole of that first weekend which was amazing to see and to those people who brought mops, buckets, bin bags, rubber gloves, brushes, shovels, muscles, dehumidifiers, coffee, cake, hugs and kisses I want to say to you all I will forever be immensely grateful, THANK YOU.

FROM THIS!

TO THIS!

The whole town will take a long time to recover but Market Street has started it’s recovery already and my neighbours have attacked re-fits with spirit, guts and determination. It’s great to see everyone beavering away so enjoy these pictures and please continue to visit Hebden Bridge and support your local, small independent businesses who are passionate about what they sell, how they sell it and who they sell it to – YOU:

Alpine, Two Tone Comics and Muse Music

Free advice for those hit by the floods at Ryburne Brokers

Rubyshoesday drying out

Emma ‘The Decorator’ is starting work at Dynamite for Kate

Valley Organics clearing up

Jess and Alison at Sage & Onion and The Deli cracking on with refits

Element counting the cost

Earth Spirit and Spirals back in business

The Yorkshire Soap Company still have lots to do but are open again

Amber and her team at Copa House have started their refit

Dynamite’s teasing sign!

Heart Gallery open this week – come on down!

So Heart Gallery has managed to open, we have really pushed ourselves to get here as it is the 19th Hebden Bridge Arts Festival and we are always proud to be a part of it.

The Hebden Bridge Arts Festival

There is lots going on behind the scenes still but the gallery itself, apart from smelling of  polyurethane instead of the gorgeous room diffusers and candles we sell, looks amazing again. We are showcasing new work in our Summer Showcase and new pieces are arriving weekly again to keep you interested – call in and say hello soon. 

Hebden needs you

So there you have it, we will all soon be up and running bigger and better than ever before and need your continued support now more than ever. This weekend it is Open Studios so please visit and support the creative community of Hebden Bridge including Heart Gallery – see you soon x

Heart Gallery wins another award

Customer At The Heart Award

This customer service award is now framed and taking pride of place in Heart Gallery after being presented with it at a lovely Women’s Leadership breakfast meeting at Malmaison in Leeds on Monday. Everything happened so quickly after receiving an email from Business transformation organisation Insight with Passion who launched their CATH project back in December 2010 and before I knew it I was on the train to Leeds!

Our appetisers on arrival at Malmaison, Leeds

Apparently members of the public were invited to send in their nominations and several were received from happy patrons of numerous businesses in Hebden Bridge and so, with true vigor, Insight With Passion brought their mystery shopping team along to Hebden Bridge to make some investigations and they were hugely impressed with the positive level of service they received. Well why wouldn’t they?

Becca and Lou from The Old Treehouse on Market Street also won an award and it was lovely sharing a bucks fizz and a natter with them

Heather Wilson is our resident artist in Heart Gallery and we were delighted that her passion for her art was also recognised and she was given an award too

Designed to encourage and reward small and medium sized UK enterprises in the retail and service sectors, for their treatment of, and positive attitude towards their customers; Customer at the Heart is a truly unique and groundbreaking scheme.

The Yorkshire Soap Company, our neighbours on Market Street, also won a CATH award but as it was a Women's Leadership breakfast they could not attend but sent favours for the tables instead!

Very rarely does excellent customer service get recognised, people are far more eager to voice negative comments and provide disgruntled feedback. Insight with Passion have developed a way by which consumers can have their say about positive customer service experiences and nominate companies they would like to undergo the Customer at the Heart treatment.

The invite came through asking us to wear white - in March! I had to raid my daughter's wardrobe for these!

From all of the businesses the public suggested, Insight with Passion were delighted to award their Customer at the Heart award to six businesses in Hebden Bridge … five of us are on Market Street, of course!

Me with my Malmaison large mug of coffee! Much needed after an early start!

We were treated to two very inspirational and motivational talks by Claire Young, Apprentice finalist 2008, and Heather Clark, a Calendar journalist and para equestrian. I did have a complaint though … they didn’t last long enough! I was thoroughly enjoying hearing about what Claire’s been up to since the Apprentice and the projects she has been involved with that aim to empower and enable young people in enterprise. As a parent myself of a very fine young 24 year old son now doing his thing in Newcastle and a young teenage daughter eager to grow up Claire’s social enterprise Girls Out Loud intrigued me . I shall be reading more about it here and encourage you to dip in to this web site and take a look too.

Claire Young - Apprentice Finalist, Motivational Speaker and Social Enterprise Champion.

Heather’s talk about her life after being affected by thalidomide was inspirational and refreshing – I can’t jump off a wall never mind out of an aeroplane and I’m scared of horses! Her four words she left us with were Sincerity, Honesty, Integrity and Tenacity and in her own words you work out the acronym!

One of the rooms we were in at Malmaison

Heather and myself collecting our Customer At The Heart award

I walked past this place too on the way back to the train station and thought it may be a good excuse to travel back to Leeds some time soon!

Bibi's Leeds - someone please take me there soon!