Tills ringing after charity shop is gifted 300 bells
ACHARITY shop boss hopes the tills will soon be ringing after a generous benefactor donated 300 ornamental bells.
Five bumper boxes of bells, in all shapes and sizes, arrived at the DEBRA store on Buxton Road, Heaviley, Stockport, last week causing quite a ding-dong.
“It must be someone’s lifetime collection,” said manager Andy Chorlton.
“They are amazing. They must have taken years to accrue, but I don’t know where we’re going to put them all.”
Andy and his staff have already begun the task of setting out the bells on shelves, hoping they will appeal to someone.
There’s certainly plenty of choice, from glass and ceramic to porcelain and brass chimers, with many commemorating events such as the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday and Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding back in 1981. There’s even a Statue of Liberty.
Andy, 58, who has run the north west’s only DEBRA furniture shop for almost two years, didn’t mind someone dropping a clanger - or 300. But priced from 25p to £1.99, he hopes they will go like the clappers.
Andy is used to unusual donations, having once received a mountain rescue stretcher which was snapped up, somewhat pessimistically, by a local boys’ football club.
He also sold a collection of polystyrene headless mannequins, which nobody but Andy thought would sell. They were bagged one by one after he displayed them in all their naked glory outside the shop.
DEBRA, which raises money to support children suffering from a debilitating skin condition, has charity shops nationwide and in Switzerland. But the drive-in drop-off outlet on the A6 in Heaviley, opened by Stockport MP Anne Coffey two years ago, is one of its most successful.
For anyone wanting to donate or support DEBRA please email them on debra@debra.org.uk or visit www.debra.org.uk.