Gini's Boutique: Meet the Birstall gift shop manager who says the town is a ‘hidden gem’ for shopping

Nestled between Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford and Huddersfield, Birstall is full of vibrant independent businesses - but Niki Mellor, the manager of Gini’s Boutique, said it’s often overlooked.

The Low Lane gift shop was founded in September last year by crafter Gini Armitage, who won the Channel 4 show Kirsty’s Handmade Christmas in 2020. The shop rents shelves to independent makers, stocking everything from turquoise clay jewellery to crocheted animal heads.

After renting a shelf earlier this year, Niki quit her council job to manage the boutique full time. She usually arrives at work by 7.30am to carefully craft the window display, arrange stock or film promotional videos that are racking up thousands of views on social media.

“I absolutely love it,” Niki told the Yorkshire Evening Post. “They say if you do a job you love you never work a day in your life, and that’s so true for me.”

Niki knows her renters inside and out, from the “absolutely stunning” flower paintings by Cornwall artist Lisa Harker, to the “quirky” homeware by Just Me and the “brilliant” industrial-style lamps and essential oil burners crafted by woodworker Penny Punk. New to the shop, and among her current favourite items, are the wooden fish sculptures by Glenn Wills of Rustic Wood.

Niki said: “It sounds really out there, but if you imagine an Aussie surf shack with the wooden art on the walls, it’s like that. It’s really eclectic and eye-catching, and he’s so talented. I put him up on the wall and the next day we sold something. I was dead proud of him.”

Niki praised the close-knit community spirit between the independent businesses in the village, from antiques dealer Kanteli and the town’s beauty salons to the Cobbles cafe, the centuries-old Black Bull pub and the butchers next door to Gini’s, Haggarts.

“You can guarantee you can come through Birstall at 7am in the morning and you’ve got a queue outside,” Niki added. “He does the best sausages in Yorkshire.”

Collaboration is common and they don’t see each other as rivals - far from it. Art gallery Arttastic will soon be exhibiting some of its students' work in the upstairs craft room of Gini’s, with snacks provided by the Cobbles cafe.

Niki said: “Birstall, for us, is the workplace, the shops are our departments, and the Cobbles is our staff room! Birstall absolutely gets overlooked, because there’s a main road straight up to Junction 27 and the big companies like IKEA.

"Because we’re surrounded by these big places, we can sometimes struggle to be heard. But it’s a hidden gem. There’s so much here and there’s a lot of strong women in the village, it’s like a little coven - we all support each other.”

“It’s all different,” she added. “You get personalised things, things that aren’t mass-produced. It’s been made by somebody’s imagination and it’s come from the heart, and they put a lot of time and effort into it and they’re proud.

"The things that they make or the businesses they run - it’s a passion. And I think that’s why we support each other, because we all understand that. It’s perfect.”