Haslemere - The high street where the independent shops rule

Above: The ancient High Street – just right for a market

by Jane Garrett

Fancy some adventurous retail therapy without hiking all the way to Guildford or Kingston? Tucked into the beautiful south west corner of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is a town that defies any attempt to make it a boring High Street clone and instead celebrates a fine spirit of independence.

Haslemere has shrugged off the blues of the 20th century and is enjoying a renaissance of small business ventures that has gone hand in hand with a strengthening of the community and a new sense of optimism, cooperation and enthusiasm.

Plans are underway for a second Haslemere Food Festival in September and for a regular Farmer’s Market. It makes sense. How ridiculous for a country town with a charter for a market signed by Queen Elizabeth I, not to mention its wide High Street, to have gone so long without a market at all? But Haslemere is making up for the loss. Its Christmas market is already inked into the town calendar for December 2.

Haslemere's hidden gems

A benchmark for the retail economy is often the number of charity shops making use of empty premises. They are hard to find in Haslemere. Instead, you find lots of little gems – unusual boutiques selling clothes, handbags or china – even vegetables boxes. And if exploring the out-of-the-ordinary is not a sufficient draw for locals and visitors there is the remarkable Haslemere Reward Scheme. Shoppers gain points when they use their reward card, which can then be exchanged for a wide range of goods and services including pottery, fashions, wine, shoes, opticians, chiropractic treatments, computer consumables, books, gifts, flowers, photography, travel, jewellery, stationery, hotel and spa, beauty, tanning and hair care.

The scheme is remarkable because according to Melanie Odell, chairman of the community partnership, the Haslemere Initiative, a number of other towns have wanted to follow their example only to fail through lack of commitment. Haslemere businesses, however, are fully committed to the project.

Working with the Chamber of Trade

“We have a wonderful Chamber of Trade and the businesses have become used to working together as a team, which for independents is very unusual,� she says.

The catalyst for this spirit of cooperation was probably the High Street roadworks of 2001, which left businesses high and dry. Desperate to win back public support, they clubbed together to organise a series of events and have never looked back.

“People learned that you can achieve far more by doing something for the town than doing it just for their own business,� says Melanie. “They are not thinking now about their particular business but about Haslemere and the Reward Scheme is a classic example of how the whole town is working together.

“And businesses are doing better than they were five years ago without a shadow of a doubt.�

If Haslemere is growing stronger, it is because it has done some positive navel gazing. In 2003, it ran a ‘health check’ to see what the town had to offer in the way of facilities, assets and services and what people actually wanted. It was also the first town to do a ‘visitor health check’ and the South East England Tourist Board was so impressed it funded three themed weekends. Last year, the town ran a Literary Weekend based around famous Victorian resident Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a Holistic Weekend.

Ideas for the third weekend caught the imagination of the town and it mushroomed into a full fortnight of Food Festival. It was a runaway success featuring chocolate and sausages, mini Masterchef contest and health foods.

Food is an important feature of Haslemere’s regeneration. The satellite shopping centre of Weyhill, home to art and music shops as well as theatrical costumier, the Haslemere Wardrobe, also has COOK, the frozen ‘home-cooked meal’ shop and two excellent restaurants, Chilli Night and Brasserie Ma Cuisine.

At the top of High Street as it heads right towards the station is New Leaf Foods, which sells local, natural and organic produce, and natural household products.

Drive off a little way into the hills and you find Lower Roundhurst Farmgate Shop and Imbhams Farm Granary. With such good food being produced on Haslemere’s doorstep, it is not surprising that it is the food festival that has really taken off. The town’s historic market credentials might be justified after all.

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