A fabulous first year for Oakhaven's home and craft charity shop!

Oakhaven's Lymington Home and Craft shop opened on Wednesday, 2 April 2025. Over 2,000 people visited the new charity shop on its first day - and the store smashed all previous sales records for Oakhaven’s High Street shops! An excited queue stretched down the length of St Thomas Street of locals and visitors to Lymington eager to be amongst the first to set foot in Oakhaven’s new charity shop - and hoping to meet BBC TV’s ‘Teddy Bear Ladies’ and Southampton footballing legend Matt Le Tissier.

>> Read about the Home and Craft Shop opening day 

In its first year, Lymington Home and Craft has sold over 125,000 items, including 25,000 items of Haberdashery, over 88,000 craft items and over 30,000 items of homeware.

The team estimates that they have sold at least 4 metres of ribbon and 8 metres of fabric each day. This equates to covering 15 football pitches in ribbon and completely covering Lymington High Street in fabric twice over!

Best-selling craft items this year include fabric, yarn, thread, papercraft items and crafting kits. The team estimates that they have sold over 2,000 buttons and have probably dropped 10,000 pins on the floor!!!

The homeware department has been popular with people of all ages, including students getting prepared for university. Plates and bowls have been especially popular, along with soft furnishings, kitchen equipment, lighting and small electrical items.

Gary Taylor, Oakhaven Hospice's Head of Retail, said, "Congratulations to Lymington Home and Craft for a stellar first year - and thank you to everyone in our community who has supported us with purchases and donations. We are blessed to have a great team of staff and volunteers who have worked hard to make our Home and Craft shop a success.

"Every item donated and sold helps us to raise vital funds for Oakhaven Hospice, enabling our specialist team of nurses, doctors, counsellors and therapists to provide compassionate care and support for families across the New Forest, Totton and the Waterside. At any one time, we are providing hospice care to over 600 patients and families facing end of life. With just 15% of our costs covered by the government, your support makes a real difference. Thank you to you all."