Pram at tip forms centrepiece of Church Stretton shop's royal display
Shropshire fashion and gift shop owner Lisa Newman is such a keen Royalist that this week her window is sporting a very special baby welcome display with a centrepiece she found – on a tip!
The splendid burgundy Silver Cross pram of the type favoured by top babies, including royals, has been given a new lease of life by Lisa's family and is now a carriage fit for any baby, even a royal one.
Staff at her Rainbow's End emporium in Church Stretton had been on standby waiting for news of the royal birth so that they could strip out the window and put in the pram along with royal bunting and souvenir china.
Lisa, who owns the shop with her husband Phil, had been on the lookout for a suitable baby carriage for ages but never dreamed where she would eventually find one.
Once the new baby had arrived and window stripping was about to start, she said: "I found it when I took my cardboard to the tip and I saw this pram.
"I was so excited and went for a closer look.
"The top was in the household waste and the bottom, in with the metal.
"So I collected it all up and took it away. It is lovely."
Her equally enthusiastic father, George Turner, added: "She asked around and someone told her the wheels had been dumped in a separate skip so she brought it home and the family – me included – embarked on a restoration campaign.
"Now with its body waxed and the chrome buffed up, it is gleaming," he added.
Lisa reckons the pram goes back to around 1960 and says: "Mum thinks they are definitely having a Silver Cross pram, she saw that somewhere."
Along with the centrepiece, the china display decorated with an identical pram and a Corgi dog sitting alongside was spotted when Lisa was at a buyers' fair and, never one to miss a bargain, she snapped it up.
"I don't know what I'll do with the pram afterwards but it is definitely not going back to the tip," she says.
