Niche businesses in Melksham. From glass painting to Tcl and Lua courses.
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2012-01-29 10:39:34 - Graham Ellis
Melksham has a number of excellent shops and other establishments selling niche products and services - things that you won't find in other nearby towns or (in some cases) in any other towns at all. Do you know what is behind each of the shop fronts? Do you walk into the new shops to see what's there? 
Some places such as the image to the right are ... right in our Shopping Centre - the "High Street". Fairies Wear Boots Designs - right on the roundabout at the entrance to Sainsbury's, make original painted and engraved glassware. Their business card says "Fine Art, Handpainted & engraved glass, gifts for special occasions, weddings and corporate events". Why not pop in and see them if you're local - I certainly learned something new about our High Street yesterday when I popped in there, and although I (personally, at present) don't have a requirement for their product, I may do in the future - and I can tell people about them too. The image on the left is our own Hotel / Training centre. We have niche products too - we're one of the very few providers of Tcl/Tk training courses in Europe, and of Lua courses worldwide. We're NOT in the town centre - we're about 200 yards from the Market Square, in an area where we have been able to provide plenty of free parking for our customers on site. And we offer many other products that are less niche too like High standard hotel and business conference accommodation. We too welcome people to walk in - we'll happily chat and show you around ... and did you know that we're open, 7 days a week, for bean to cup coffee, light snacks, and the rest. You'll always get a warm welcome.
A web page such as this one cannot give full show to all the wonderful products - be they an original painting of Lacock Abbey, a Perl course, bespoke engraved glassware with a unicorn theme, or tutorship in how to write and distribute applications for mobile phones and tablets. It can just hint at what's available. It's a taster. We may be able to tempt you further with more pictures ...
... and we may persuade you to click on those images to see them larger (as will happen with most images on this page) or to take you to more detailed pages which will tell you much more about the product (which will happen with one or two of them), and perhaps let you purchase online.
Hotel rooms certainly CAN be booked online ([via this link]), and we're delighted to offer immediate confirmation of availability, and best prices. Training course are also bookable on line [via this link], though we prefer to check with each individual by email first to make sure that they're buying the most appropriate course to meet their needs. And in the case of both hotel and courses, we look forward to meeting you in Melksham in due course.
With physical products rather than person-to-person services (such as those from Fairies Wear Boots Designs), you may wish to visit their shop - meet the owners, choose want you want ... but you may also live a long way away and for purely practical reasons wish to look through their web site, contact them through that (link [here]), and order and have your product shipped without ever setting foot in Wiltshire. And that's welcomed and cared for business too.
Melksham has a number of niche suppliers. Lisa and I were amazed to come up with some 200 retail product or service outlets when we came up with a map a couple of years ago. And we know that many of them are selling far and wide beyond the town via the Web. That's wonderful news for them, and for Melksham. Long may it be fostered, and continue to grow.