Back to a life less uniform
For nearly 20 years as a police officer, Lisa Parr worked with victims of rape and child abuse. Now she has gone full circle, running the florists she worked in as a Saturday girl, writes Catherine Scott.
THERE can’t be two careers that are so different from each other – working with the victims of rape and child abuse and running an award-winning florists shop. But for Lisa Parr, both have been massive parts of her life. Lisa first worked for EarthThings in Elland as a Saturday girl 27 years ago when she was just 14. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was at school. I did my A-levels but I’d had enough,” she recalls. “I ended up working at the insurance company where my mum worked while still helping out at EarthThings.
“There was a lad there whose family had always been in the police and he was thinking of joining. I thought it sounded all right and so in 2001 I applied and got in. It wasn’t something I had ever thought about doing but I just loved it. I was only 19 when I joined, I really didn’t know much else. There were parts that we really difficult because I was so young. It didn’t help that I looked about 12.”
Lisa lived in Halifax but worked in Huddersfield and then moved to Holmfirth, which was much more rural crime. She then moved out of uniform and went on an attachment to CID which she also loved and decided to stay. When West Yorkshire Police created its rape investigation unit in 2007, she applied.
“I got rape trained and stayed with the unit until it was disbanded in 2013. It was difficult – some cases were more difficult than others but I loved dealing with it.
“You do have to try to remember it is just a job but there are ones that play on your mind and stay with you more than others, then you rely on your team to support you. You have to learn to separate or you’d go crazy.”
When the rape unit was disbanded, Lisa
’My training as a police officer, which involved dealing with people in difficult circumstances, has taught me the importance of space when people need to grieve.’
went into the Kirklees child protection unit. Then, after honeymooning on Grand Cayman, she and her husband Andy decided they wanted to live on the Caribbean island. So when she saw a recruitment advert for the Cayman Islands police force’s child protection unit, she decided to apply.
“We thought the process would take a long time. Andy had been in the navy and was due to retire in 2018 and so we thought we’d go out together.” But things didn’t go quite according to plan and Lisa was snapped up quickly, which meant her moving to Grand Cayman alone while Andy packed up their life in Yorkshire.
“We sold everything as we weren’t planning on coming back, but everything is so expensive out there – we quite quickly realised we weren’t going to be able to retire there,” says Lisa.
“I loved it but it is a very frustrating place to work as a police officer. The things we always knew we had to do here don’t work in practice out there. The experience isn’t there; some of the things we deal with every day here just don’t happen out there, so when they do it’s a really big deal and they don’t really know how to handle it as we would.
“It’s like going back in time and some people resent you being there. It is so frustrating when you know things aren’t being done properly or they are being brushed under the carpet – you either had to go along with that, which I just couldn’t, or leave.”
After four years the couple decided to return to Yorkshire. “I don’t regret my time there and I set things up which I believe are useful,” adds Lisa.
Once back in West Yorkshire, she realised she didn’t want to return to the police in the UK, although she wasn’t sure what she was going to do. But fate had plans for Lisa. “In 2022 I contacted April the florist at EarthThings as I wanted to send my mum some flowers and asked who was helping her out in the run-up to Mother’s Day. She said no one and so I offered to go in and lend a hand.
“It got me thinking. I’d always loved that shop and always said I’d love to have it as my retirement project.”
So Lisa contacted the owner, who was by then in her 70s, and asked her to give her first refusal if she decided to sell the business. “She basically said ‘actually I would like no one more than you to have it, so let’s do it’.”
And so 27 years after starting as a Saturday girl, Lisa took ownership of EarthThings, keeping on April, the main florist. That was just over a year ago and since then Lisa and Andy have relocated the business with a £170,000 investment from a low footfall
area to a prime location in the town. “The old premises was rented and in an area that was no longer very busy and so we bought a house and converted it into a shop which is more obvious for people to see. Although the shop had been in Elland for 30 years, people seemed to have forgotten about it,” says Lisa, who has also implemented a redeveloped digital strategy to boost online presence and sales.
“There was a website and they were on Facebook but they really didn’t do that much with it. They really only did it because of Covid to let people know what was happening. There really wasn’t much of an online presence. They also didn’t do much marketing or events like wedding fairs. They had a good customer base but it had dwindled over time.
“So when I took over I went on Facebook and posted more things to let people know we were still here and what’s happening and advertising what type of bouquets we had. Andy created the new website, which is still a work in progress.”
As the new premises was bigger, the couple decided to sell more things than just flowers. “We sell gifts as well that can go along with the flowers,” says Lisa. “I started to go to wedding fairs and join Facebook groups for brides – it’s just getting the name out there again. Since then the number of weddings has increased from five to more than 60.”
Further investment is planned with an expansion to the premises which will include building a consultation room at the rear of the shop, to offer customers privacy as they select important and sentimental flowers, and also expanding the business’s corporate customers.
“My training as a police officer, which involved dealing with people in difficult circumstances, has taught me the importance of space at times when people need to grieve,” adds Lisa. “That’s why we’re building a consultation room, so that people have the privacy they need when they’re selecting flowers for specific occasions.”
She uses two wholesalers, one in Huddersfield and one in Leeds. Since taking over the business, Lisa has seen the cost of cut flowers increase massively. “It depends on the time of year and availability but prices have definitely gone up.”
She says social media has a big impact on what some brides want when it comes to their wedding flowers. “You will always have the traditional favourites but some come in having seen something on social media, but go out with something a bit more traditional.
“Pampas grass has a been a massive trend and this year we have seen a demand for light blue flowers which really increased the price as you only get so many naturally blue ones.”
In just a year Lisa has won two prestigious industry awards and tripled turnover since she took the helm, growing the team from one to four employees.
EarthThings was awarded the Florist of the Year title from Yorkshire Prestige as well as Wedding Florist of the Year from SME News Northern Enterprise.
“This recognition is testament to the staff working at EarthThings. We are all so closeknit, a little florist family. Winning the awards provides that external verification that all our hard work is paying off,” says Lisa.
“Although we face competition from supermarkets and flower providers who can offer cheap alternatives, we value our family-oriented service and a more bespoke and personal offering. If people don’t use their local florists, they will lose them.”