"I swapped a career in the police for running my own homeware shop in Ironbridge"

Located in the heart of the historic town of Ironbridge, Homeward Bound has seen the 35-year-old come “a full circle”.

“For the last 10 years, I was a police officer with West Mercia Police. I resigned in January last year and two months later opened the shop. My sister and brother-in-law have been in the furniture importation business for a long time and own the building I now rent from them. 

“I knew a little bit about retail. I actually dabbled in it before I joined the police. I did 10 years in the public sector and now I’ve come back around to start this again,” she explains. 

The opening of Homeward Bound also brought the name back to the town after more than a decade. 

“Back in November 2001, my sister and brother-in-law opened their first shop in Ironbridge and it was called Homeward Bound,” explains Jo.

“As a family, they came up with that name and thought it would be a nice name for a homeware store. As their business evolved, they created a limited company called Ironbridge Furniture Ltd and the name Homeward Bound sort of disappeared. 

“When we first got into discussions about me taking on the shop and lease, we thought how cool would it be to bring back the old name. It’s interesting how many people still remember that name from all those years ago,” she explains.