Wakefield’s former Sweet Bites shop is being transformed into a local craft market to provide an outlet for local talent to sell their work and become a gift shop for the village.
Suzanne McFarlane and her family live behind the shop and started Sweet Bites just before the pandemic rolled in, eventually closing the business three years ago. Since then, the shop has sat empty and as a creative person herself, she had an idea.
“I’m sick of it being empty, so why not open it to the community?”
She put the word out and now she has locals with knitted goods, candles, kids’ clothes, leather goods, oils and balms, flowers and paintings who all want to be part of the market which is aptly named The Wakefield Village Creatives.
“It will be like a marketplace, where people can sell their goods and hopefully make some profit. People say this is what Wakefield needs.”
It’s a new chapter for the building which was built in 1882 and has a colourful history. Originally, it was a saddlery, but as a photo on the wall depicts, it was not smooth sailing. In 1904, a land dispute over the boundary resulted in the shop being sawn in two for the separate landowners to take their share of the building.
This week, the shop at the front will fill with creative goods in time to open this Saturday between 10am and 4pm.
Suzanne says all stall holders are from the Wakefield area and will have rostered shifts in the shop which after this weekend will open from Thursday to Sunday.
