IRONBRIDGE – A THRIVING COMMUNITY
All fun and games The Toybox is an independent, traditional toy shop opened on the high street in Ironbridge by Vonny Simmons in December 2020, backed by a £10,000 Pride in Our High Street ‘revive and thrive’ grant from Telford & Wrekin Council.
£10,000 High street start up grant awardee
The Toybox 34 High Street, Ironbridge, TF8 7AG www.thetoyboxironbridge.co.uk
Q: How did you get started? Do you have a background in toy retailing? A: Absolutely not. The roots of the business come from a day out with my grandson.
Q: How has the first year gone? A: I thought this would be a business that would make enough to just tick along but it has been fantastically busy. People increasingly want to shop locally and there is real demand for traditional toys, particularly wooden toys, as well as educational and craft toys to make things like
potato clocks or build-your-own doorbells. We hope that we’ve created a beautiful shop where children and parents experience a sense of wonder as they enter and leave with toys that last a lifetime. There’s an element of nostalgia for parents and grandparents; people just love looking around the shop, we love working there. My husband is a surgeon but he and three of my grown-up children have all got involved. We have seen Ironbridge becoming increasingly busy. Of course it is a popular place to visit, particularly for families and those with
I wanted to buy him a toy to mark a lovely day and couldn’t find anything that wasn’t a TV tie-in or wrapped in plastic packaging. Talking to friends and family it became clear that there wasn’t a shop that sold the kind of traditional toys parents and grandparents often want to buy for children. Q: How did you end up in Ironbridge? A: The idea of a toy shop started to grow,
and I had worked at the empty unit on the high street in the past. It’s a wonderful historic building that was built around the time of the bridge and was used as the Ironbridge Gorge Museum shop for a time. I’d been chatting to one of my daughters, fantasising about what we could do with the shop; I mentioned it to my husband, Adrian, who responded: “That’s not the worst idea you’ve ever had.” We put a business plan together and then discovered we could apply for a revive and thrive grant from Telford & Wrekin Council. That made all the difference. We remortgaged the house to buy toys and stock and were able to use the grant for the work on the shop premises.
young children, but it has a growing reputation as a shopping centre too. Telford & Wrekin Council’s support has obviously helped a lot and there is a great community feeling among the
traders in Ironbridge. When we set up a Christmas grotto with Santa Claus so many other shopkeepers said it had helped boost their trade as well.
TOTALLY TELFORD
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