“We’re stronger together”: inspiring mum-of-two shop-owner on how Chesterfield can win

Change: this everywhere quiet anxiety of when will things get better? M’s gallery and her sister shop M’s accessories straddles a side-alley into Chesterfield’s Falcon Yard, named from a 1600s pub that is long gone.

This historic part of town has seen much. 1845: an issue over money seeing a man clobbered with a spade in a butcher’s shop. His remains found in a nearby cesspool, identified only by an embroidered handkerchief, a gift from a sweetheart.

Even Boden’s chippy has gone. Change. Emma Stevenson, 46, has been running M’s gallery for “sixteen full years”, and this industrious shop-owner has a singular view, bathed in optimism, on how we can move forward: a two-way action of together.

“All we can keep doing is telling everybody how great Chesterfield is. Come and give us a go. If you’ve not been for six months, a year, whatever, just come for a cup of tea and a wander round. Come and see what it’s actually like. And then, it’s up to us as shopkeepers to make people want to buy what you sell. It’s up to you to sweep outside your shop and clean your windows.”

As we take photographs of her shop, a plastic bag blows down the alley, wraps itself around an old bicycle used as shop decoration. Emma picks the bag up, bins it, smiles.

Her stock of jewellery echoes her middle: simple, yet particular. Strong designs that aren’t loud. Intricately cut statements with quiet style. Keepsakes to make notes of life happenings.

“Silver. It’s a cost thing, and also people seem to be more creative with the silver because it costs less to have a play with. And the price, you know, things are tough… So, if you can get a necklace for thirty to sixty quid as opposed to sticking a nought on that.”

Emma’s clothes stock is also a collection of choice. “Being a forty-something mum, I wanted clothes I liked but weren’t old fashioned. I was never a Topshop girl when I was young enough and thin enough to wear it. Every dress I buy has pockets in it.”

Emma laughs, but you can tell there’s something of a bugbear here. “The amount of ladies that come in and say ‘Ah, brilliant!’. We have a couple of ladies come in that are medics, and say ‘Well, where do you put your pager?’ Gents have pockets, so…”

Fair point. So, does Emma see herself as stocking the things she’d like to buy? “The opportunity arose, the unit was coming up, and I’d bemoaned I couldn’t find what I wanted… the type of clothes that I wanted, so I thought ‘Put your money where your mouth is, and sort it’”.

Originally from Rotherham, Emma tells of how her life as an indie shop owner came about: a change of job, town, and life pattern.

“I left school, went to work for Woolworths on a management training scheme. That’s how I ended up in Chesterfield, when they opened the one on Vicar Lane. I loved my time at Woolworths.”

“I wanted more of a work/life balance. I knew, further on down the line I wanted a family. I was lucky enough to have a supportive husband, and he said ‘Let’s go and have a look’. We started off with a little gift shop, and then had a bit of jewellery in it, and then I realised I liked the jewellery stuff more, so when this unit became available we applied for it and we were lucky enough to get it.”

Emma laughs again, glances round the shop. “I joke about this one is for my thirtieth birthday.” She points to M’s accessories across the alley. “That was my fortieth birthday present… And my husband’s worried sick what I’ll want for my fiftieth.”

Emma’s humour is telling. She chuckles that she’s “incredibly lucky… I’m spoilt, basically,” when talking of her family support network: “I’ve got great grandparents that are always on hand to help.” She outlines a sense of naivety when doing what she does: “I think, ignorance is bliss to begin with. Because we’d not got the children then, I think… ‘If it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out.’”

But, this doesn’t tell the whole story. Here is an inspiring mum-of-two who has built a business that has survived for over sixteen years. This takes resilience, vision, and bravery. And, that vital survival technique of together.

“It doesn’t make sense to stock what somebody else has already got. For example, Laura Jo at Adorn and me, we make sure we don’t cross-over in any way… and if I don’t have it, I’ll say have you tried Adorn? And we often walk customers to each other’s shops.”

“And anybody follows what they love is a good person to surround you. Like-minded people. The other indies. We’re a community of people… We’re stronger together.”

Emma’s stance feels one of gentle defiance and open-hand. “Yes, we’ve lost some of the big boys, but so has every town. But we’re really lucky… there’s over eighty independents in Chesterfield. There’s not many towns that can boast that.”

Agreed. And here is a welcome answer to the current climate. What if Chesterfield is becoming stronger with its growing mix of indie shops? A stewpot of different flavours, offering different things to different people? Is it not up to us to be the change we want to see?

Falcon Yard. 1867: a house on fire. Luckily spotted by some lads returning from a night out skating an iced-over pond. The household’s children saved by a man thereafter known as ‘Daredevil Dick’.

Emma, of M’s gallery: “Chesterfield. It’s a bloody great town, really… Come on in.”