Craggy Witch Emporium opens in Gosport

Lesley Robinson, 54, has opened her first business, Craggy Witch Emporium, in Gosport and has been blown away by the reaction to her new shop.

The 54-year-old’s shop offers a range of products including home made soap, bath crystals, cards, candles and holistic loose leaf teas.

Lesley said: ‘I became Wiccan and the things that I needed I couldn’t get unless I went online or went all the way to the New Forest, which is the closest place that does things like this. I was ordering all of my things online when I started doing spell candles and spell bottles on Etsy and the spell candles were really really popular and when people knew I started doing that on Etsy, they were all saying how they couldn’t get this stuff anywhere. It was interesting that people were interested in it but couldn’t get it anywhere. My partner ended up saying that I should open up a shop and that’s what I’ve done.’

The shop opened on September 23 and she said that the first few days people were waiting outside before they had opened and she was surprised at the response.

The shop, which is in Brockhurst Road, features a range of gifts and Lesley said that ‘there is something for everybody. We have a lot of people coming in saying they are Wiccan and Pagan and have come in to buy things, but we also have general gifts and candles for everyone.’

The building that the shop is in needed work done to it to get it to the place that it is currently as it was ‘a blank canvas’.

Lesley’s partner worked on the interior of the store as it needed a new a lease of life and he cleaned, painted and decorated the store to get it ready for the grand opening last week.

Lesley said that a couple had travelled down from the New Forest to come and have a look at the new store and what she had on offer which made her happy that she was drawing people in.

She said: ‘The first two days were really really busy, people were waiting outside.’