About Us

Jill Atkinson, opened her first Olive Branch shop in 2005 but for 15 years before that she worked in the financial services industry.  However, she remembers from a very small age when visiting other peoples' homes with her parents, taking in every details of decoration, furniture and quality.

Growing up on a farm on Silsden Morr gave her a love of the country and she cites seeing her first edition of Country Life magazine as almost and epiphany!

'I just knew it was me.  It was like a revelation.'  She says.

During her days in the finance industry, Jill became an avid auction goer and began buying and selling vintage goods, furniture and animal sets.

Opening The Olive Branch was the fruition of a long held dream to harness her love of design and quality with business.  It was also a cohesive effort by Jill's family and good friends, especially Jill's sister-in-law and 'Domestic Goddess' Jane Atkinson and Helen Iveson.  Helen enjoyed the experience so much; she went on to open her own shop!

Our History

Addingham

Phyllis Roe and her mother before her ran the haberdashery and fancy goods store in Addingham making it a family business for over 100 years.  Phyllis never married and her and her shop became the heart and soul of Addingham.  Her mother had been a local dressmaker and milliner when she first took over the shop and Phyllis still worked in the local mill.  At the turn of the century, Addingham was then a bigger area that Ilkley, its neighbouring town, and boasted over 90 shops.

If Roe's didn't have what you needed in stock, they would order it from nearby Leeds.  Many a time young Phyllis would go to the local railway station to pick up a morning jacket for a funeral or a specially carved walking stick.

Roe's though was much more than somewhere you could buy a yard of silk or a pair of new scissors.  If someone in Addingham had a problem, they would go and see Miss Roe.  She was the soul of tact and discretion and never gossiped about her cutomers troubles and she drilled it into her staff to do the same.  She had a heart bursting with compassion and only saw the good in people.

Fate brought Jill to take over from Miss Roe, she had been in the shop and a local farmer had introduced the two.  Jill's youngest son was off school and Jill was dropping him off at her mother-in-laws in Addingham when she saw the Fore Sale sign.  Miss Roe's health was deteriorating and now in her eighties she decided to sell.  Without even going into the shop, Jill made an offer.

Miss Roe came to open the newly name Olive Branch in 2005 demanging a fish and chip supper with curry sauce for her troubles.

Why the name 'The Olive Branch?' it was thought that it would be an apt name because Phyllis Roe gave the gift of kindness and friendship, the most important gift of all.

Miss Roe died, aged 90 on St Valentines Day 2006.  Her funeral procession began from the shop that she had run for nearly all of her life.  The entire village came out to pay tribute to a very special lady.

The Village Shop

In the middle of our village

Step backward into time,

For nestled in the main street

Is a favourite shop of mine,

The shelves are full of knitting wool

Arranged in every hue,

Pins and needles socks and gloves

Are waiting here for you.

Withing this little shop though

Are things money cannot buy,

Love and warmth and friendship

An oasis warm and dry,

There's a chair or two to sit on

When friends drop in to chat,

The floor is neatly covered

With the largest welcome mat.

God looks down from heaven

He doesn't count what's sold,

But the precious time you give

For both the young and old.

I'd make the world a better place

Grant me this single wish,

That every town and village

Could have a shop like this.

This little rhyme for Christmas

From all who love you so,

Your magic shop keep open

God bless you Phyllis Roe.

Alistair Wilkinson - Lord of the Manor, Addingham

Easingwold

At the turn of 20th century, the now named Baker House was a bike shop.  It was still this in 1941 when Mr Baker bought the shop.  The advent of World War Two scuppered Mr Baker's plans to turn the shop into an electric emporium.  He's always been interested in the then new technology.  He'd begun repairing radios and televisions in 1927 in Marton in the Forest where he then lived.  His family though were originally grain merchants from Hull.  The Department of Agriculture took over the shop as a planning base for the farming war effort.

It was to be another 10 years, in 1951, before Mr Baker fulfilled his dream and opened his electrical showroom.  In the early 1950's electrical homewares were a novelty and so Mr Baker was ahead of his time.  Curiously, when Jill restored the shop she found a farthing from 1951 which has the picture of a Wren on.

Mr Baker loved technology photography and in the upstairs rooms - now part of The Olive Branch shop - he had a recording studio.  Big name, big bands of the day like Victor Sylvester would come to record there and in the nearby school.

May Foster was a Sales Assistant fromthe day the shop opened.  She met her husband Noel, one of the electrical fitters there.  When Mr Baker, who like Miss Roe in Addingham never married, was ready to retire to the Lake District, May and Noel took over the business. They still kept a bedroom for Mr Baker there - that room is now The Olive Branch's changing room.

May and Noel retired themselves in 2007 and in the summer of 2008 , whilst Jill was having tea to the local Tee Hee, Jill noticed a garage sale of fittings from the shop and bought a lot of them.  Nine months later, the local agents rang her to say the shop was for sale...Jill did not hesitate in placing an offer.