TV presenters and antiques champions Kirstie Allsopp and Mark Hill announced the winners of the inaugural Britain’s Best Antiques Shops Awards at the Bath Decorative & Antiques Fair on March 8.
The competition, based entirely on votes
from members of the public and organised by Homes &
Antiques magazine in conjunction with Antiques News
and Fairs, awarded prizes to five businesses, from shops and
vintage emporia to antiques centres and auction houses.
The winners were:
• Best antiques shop: Blighty
Antiques, Cheltenham
• Best specialist shop:
Christopher Clarke Antiques, Stow on the Wold
• Best vintage/midcentury shop:
Nanadobbie, Brighton
• Best auction house: McTear's
Auctioneers, Glasgow
• Best antiques
centre: Hungerford Arcade, Hungerford
The awards were launched in the November
2011 issue of Homes & Antiques to tie in with
National Antiques Week and invited the public to nominate their
favourite businesses in each of the categories. A shortlist of 25
names was announced last month.
Sarah and Andrew Seccombe of Blighty
Antiques said after the announcement: "We owe a very big thank you
to our customers who took time to nominate us as Britain's best
antique shop. We are delighted to have won because it is voted by
the public and that's the best compliment of all."
Gail McLeod, editor of Antiques News and Fairs and
organiser of National Antiques Week, commented: "I have been
delighted with the response to this campaign, launched last
November in National Antiques Week, to raise the profile of this
heritage industry and its fantastic green credentials.
The general public have voted in their thousands to give their
favourite dealer or auctioneer a chance to win a coveted
award."
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