Sanders Cove Crystals, reflect on first six months in business

Ian and Holly Sanderson from Hunwick near Bishop Auckland, opened Sanders Cove Crystals on The Bank in Barnard Castle on July 19, 2025.

Ian spoke to The Northern Echo about how welcoming the Barnard Castle community has been and said they are the best part of the town.

He said: “We cannot be happier with the area we are in. There is such a wonderful group of people who live in Barnard Castle.

“The Barnard Castle community are amazing. They openly support any new business; they are actively looking for new businesses to come into the town. I know quite a lot of the locals by name now, and that is nice.

The husband and wife team said they cannot be happier after opening their store (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

“It feels like we have been accepted into the community. A lot of people think small town, small village mentality, well, Barnard Castle is not like that. I honestly cannot express how welcoming the community is.”

The business owner said two further businesses have opened in the town since Sanders Cove Crystals. He touched on how well received they were by the community.

Ian called independent businesses the “lifeblood of any town centre” (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

“The welcome they and I have received since moving and opening businesses is astonishing. I have people from The Bowes Museum who come down and look around my shop. That’s so nice to have. The community here are brilliant.”

Sanders Cove Crystals has been open since July 2025 (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

Ian told The Northern Echo how the idea for opening a business with his wife came about.

He said: “The main catalyst was when my wife’s mum passed away. She started collecting crystals, which reignited an old memory of mine from my youth. I collected a really old series called Treasures of the Earth, which was a magazine.

Ian and Holly Sanderson from Hunwick (Image: IAN SANDERSON)

“My mum passed away a few years ago, and I found out she had kept them all. Me and my wife were looking at how to spread our interests with other people and enjoy it. That was the main inspiration for starting our own business.”

Sanders Cove Crystals (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

He admitted there was never originally a plan to open a business, and he originally thought of it as a hobby and a way to earn extra money.

“We noticed very quickly that it was growing exponentially, to the point where, before we took on the shop, we were looking at premises because we needed somewhere to store the crystals as we had outgrown our house, Ian said.

“What initially started as the odd market became markets every weekend. From there, it has continued to grow to the point where we took the lease on the shop in June and opened in July.”

The shop has a collection of more than 200 varieties of crystals (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

The independent business owners said it was really exciting to share their passion with other people, but said they also wanted to make it affordable.

When the shop opened, it stocked around 150 varieties of crystals from smaller stones to large spheres, towers and glittering geodes. Due to the growth of the business, Ian said they now have a collection of more than 200 varieties of crystals.

He added: “We are finding that we are able to make newer contacts. We are trading at bigger events too. I did an event in November, and I actually made a really good contact with a lady in London. She is also a wholesaler and has numerous contacts around the world.

Ian said the Barnard Castle community is amazing (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

“She trades at the Tucson Gem Show in America, which is absolutely astonishing. She can get things that I did not know you could get. We are making important, new contacts. The growth we have seen, even though with being a new shop, you do get that lull where you are not the new shop anymore, we are very happy with how it has gone.”

And one thing Ian enjoys is that his work does not feel like a job.

He explained: “It is not like going to work whenever we come to the shop. We are literally coming, chilling out and enjoying the day.

Sanders Cove Crystals (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

“This does not feel like going to work; it is essentially going to another room in the house. We have made some wonderful contacts in the shop; we have got regular customers travelling from places like Consett and Darlington.

“I do not think people actually realise how much we appreciate that.”

And Ian spoke of how important it is to support independent businesses, calling them the “lifeblood of any town centre”.

Sanders Cove Crystals is located on The Bank, Barnard Castle (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

He said: “Independent businesses are the lifeblood of any town centre, and it is so important to support them. If you do not have those and end up with big chains, they will all move to a retail park. At that point, you have no town centre left.

“Take Bishop Auckland for example, as much as Tindale is fantastic and a great asset to the town, it has depleted the town centre.

“It would be nice for small independents like ours to be able to get into a shop. The bigwigs, wherever they are, need to start looking at trying to encourage small independents because without them, you do not have that town community.”