Nursery specialist, Hippychick is marking its 25-year milestone this year, with part of the celebrations including a charity 25km trek across the Quantock Hills on Friday 19 July.
The walk will be in aid of the charity the company – which was founded by husband and wife team, Jeremy and Julia Minchin – has chosen to support in its 25th year of trading, Love Musgrove, the official charity of Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.
Being a Somerset business, the charity is very close to all of the team’s hearts as it has supported so many of them over the years (including the birth of 18 Hippychick babies), as well as providing vital services and support to the local community.
The walk will start from Barford Gables in Spaxton, Julia and Jeremy’s former home which they moved to from London in 1998. Barford Gables is renowned locally as the former home of the Reverend Harry Prince, founder of The Agapemonites – based on the Greek word Agapemone meaning ‘abode of love’.
“When I started the business our home became more a labour of love than an abode of love, and quickly became Hippychick’s nerve centre as the business grew from a small seed with our original founding product, the Hippychick Hipseat baby carrier, into a million-turnover business, within three years,” commented Julia. “The wing of the property which we owned operated formerly as a care home and had lots of rooms that we never got around to decorating. This was a stroke of luck as these spare rooms became much needed storage space for the thousands of products we were having made and shipped in from the Far East, India and South Africa.
“Despite this, we started to burst at the seams in 2003 and it was at that stage that we took the plunge and invested in a 9,000 square foot warehouse in Bridgwater where Hippychick still operates from today.”
From Barford Gables in Spaxton, the route will continue up to Crowcombe Park Gate, carrying on over the Quantock Hills to Holford and back to Nether Stowey, on part of the famous Coleridge Way.
Julia continued: “We have tested the route out in tranches and it’s certainly going to be a challenge. We have already set up a JustGiving page for the walk with the proceeds going directly to Love Musgrove. We will also be doing a raffle draw at 5km intervals, which can be entered into on our social media channels with winners being announced along the route.”
Julia and Jeremy are keen sailors, horse-riders and walkers but even they recognise that 25kms in one day will be quite an undertaking. “We are currently in training, getting a few kms under our belt each weekend during the build up. We have pledged to complete the walk in one day and reckon that with short stops every 5kms, it will take us somewhere around 6.5-7 hours.”
Julia and Jeremy will be accompanied by Hippychick’s longest serving staff member, Rose Slocombe, who has been with the business since the outset, as well as 12 members of the Hippychick crew and four dogs.
To donate towards the 25km charity walk, simply click on this link.
