About Me

I’m Sally, and after living in Manchester for 32 years I now live in Brimfield, Herefordshire with my husband, Martin. We have a grown up daughter Jess and I make things out of chicken wire!  Martin said you might like to know a bit about me so here goes…. 

I think I am a country girl at heart. Born in the early sixties in the shadow of the Malvern Hills. As a “military brat”, our family was always on the move,  but Malvern was, and is, where I call home. I love driving up the Worcester Road and seeing the Malvern Hills stretching out before me. It’s a special place. As a small girl I walked across the hills with my grandma to visit great aunts. We took the ride along Jubilee Drive  from Great Malvern to Colwall on our wedding day. I have walked up the hills many times with my little dog Gemma, racing ahead or with Jess taking Cutie for a walk up the “Beaker”! 

“Ever since I can remember I have loved making things”. 

Some of my first memories are of the excitement of receiving the programme of events  for the Madresfield show, a local agricultural show which took place near to where my grandparents lived in Worcestershire. All the cousins, aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents took part.  The morning of the show was hectic as we got our exhibits ready and set them up in the tent for judging.

It was a painful wait until it was time to see if, and what you had won. I entered, cuddly toys, pressed flower pictures, Victoria sandwiches, vegetable animals, but my favourite was always the miniature garden on a dinner plate.  always had projects going on at home. We made jewellery boxes from old cigar boxes, covering them in polyfilla and decorating them with shells gathered from the beaches in Pembrokeshire. We painted pebbles, made lavender bags and embroidered hankies for birthday presents. 

My favourite job would have to have been a Blue Peter presenter, or as a close second an air hostess! I didn’t do either. I joined the Mail Order publications after my mum made me apply for every job in the paper one night! I stayed with various incarnations of the company including relocating to Manchester and Great Universal Stores and had a ball for 26 years! Thanks mum! 

I volunteered for Scope at school and since then had always wanted to work with people with learning disabilities. After a small break I got that opportunity. I spent the next 10 years working for a local charity, Stockdales, firstly as an administrator in Lifeskills, then latterly in the fundraising team. I loved it! I worked with some wonderful people and the guys we supported were an inspiration. 

When our daughter, Jess, graduated as a vet in 2019, an extremely proud parent moment, Martin and I decided to make a move and return to a more relaxed lifestyle in the countryside. Then Covid-19 happened, so our move to our country idle is on hold,  but in the meantime I am making the most of  the time to twist ….. so watch this space ! 

Update

Well it’s now 2022 and after what turned out to be a tricky couple of years for the whole world, our move finally happened just before Christmas in 2020, and yes, it was worth the wait!

We are very lucky to now live in the beautiful Herefordshire countryside just outside Ludlow. The house sits on the edge of open fields in a small village so our move to a more rural lifestyle was complete, but there was still something missing. Yes you guessed it, a dog! 

So in 2021 we made a small addition to our family in the shape of Archie,  a very sweet black and silver miniature schnauzer!