The Silver Pear today is quite a distance from its humble beginning when it was just a single room on Corve Street in 1999. Since then Janet Tuffley, the woman behind this preeminent gift shop and houseware shop has built up a solid following with its wonderful, edgy and eclectic range of contemporary home and design-led products.

A creative flair

You can find one-off gifts for everyone in The Silver Pear which makes it a store you have to explore. A personal favourite is the smelly (in a positive way!) section at the back where you can explore a full range of delightful perfumes, candles and body lotions for women and men. 

The shop is the ideal spot to find just the right thing for those hard-to-gift people; it is packed to the brim with items from clothing, beauty, jewellery, accessories, cookware, baby products and gardening accessories to gifts for him. The breadth of items for all age groups means locals don’t have to hare off to a bigger town to find that perfect present.

Her story

What you find in the shop is down to Janet’s own unique style and taste. Her creative flair and innate sense of style result from a family background of architects and artists. “Style, shape and colour”, says Janet, are “in her bones”.

Before opening The Silver Pear, Janet made gilded mirrors and painted lamps for the high-end London market. And then a single trip to the Spring Fair held at the NEC in Birmingham changed everything. Janet saw so many wonderful items on display that both she and her husband, Chris (also co-owner of the store) saw a gap in the market for just the type of modern design products they thought could also sell well in a rural community.

Thus, the idea for a contemporary design-led store in Ludlow was born.  Silver Pear is an amalgam of Janet’s New Zealand roots with a strong desire to bring colour and light into our homes and our lives. She also strongly believes in the power of positivity and has amazing energy and drive to back this up. 

She loves beautiful, tasteful items of high quality and that is why she has always sourced at trade fairs, looking for the best of British as well as local artisans with a unique story. She also seeks contemporary new designs; international brands such as Alessi and Orla Kiely have been stocked in store from the very beginning.

The Silver Pear have always supported brands with a strong ethical ethos. L’Occitane which supports women in Burkina Faso is a particular favourite.  Another is Shyla, a jewellery brand that not only creates exquisite pieces according to Janet but also supports orphaned girls in India through a percentage of its income.

More than just a store

Janet and Chris offer many of the shop’s products through their online store and have just launched an exciting wedding registry. In addition to this, they run the Silver Pear Apartments, self catering accommodation in the restored 13th century building where the store is housed. The luxury apartments are created in the same design philosophy as the store.

With its 12,000 item range and luxury accommodation, The Silver Pear truly has a lock on fulfilling all of one’s lifestyle needs. Janet’s mission was to create a shop inspired by the notion that customers who want to shop locally can still find contemporary, interesting, artistic elements close to home. The business has remained true to her purpose and in the words one loyal customer, “we wouldn’t know what to do without the Silver Pear for all our gifts and homeware”.

To find out more about the Silver Pear, click here