Charity Shop Tourism - Chazzing in the Black Country

Fire up the camper! We haven't been charity shopping (aka chazzing) since Tuesday.

Today took us to the Black Country town of Halesowen, which, according to the Doomsday Book, was once larger than Birmingham. During the Industrial Revolution Halesowen was famed for its coal mining as well as its nail and iron industry and, at its peak in 1919 had 130 working coal mines.

Plenty of the original Norman architecture is still evident at St John the Baptist church which stands on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon church in the centre of the town and there's a Medieval cross in the churchyard.

But enough of the history. According to The Charity Retail Association's website there are 7 charity shops in Halesowen town centre and that's good enough for us. (We found eight!)

First up there's Shelter. Dresses with peplum waists, visible zips, studded collars and Ikat & bird prints - the racks are groaning under the amount of them. At between £2.50 - £4.50 the prices weren't bad if high street fashion is your thing. I spotted a tatty vinyl Kelly bag labelled "Vintage" and priced at £15 and left empty-handed.

Even the sale at the Sally Army didn't tempt us. Jon spotted a chunky 1960s Icelandic knit for £4 but it was so filthy it should have carried a health warning. 

I couldn't tell you about prices in here because the stock was so uninspiring that I didn't look at a single tag. Jon went through the huge pile of £1 vinyl albums but the only ones of any interest were already in our collection.

The bric-a-brac shelf in Acorns was good, a lovely 1950s yellow ceramic 6 person tea set for £14.50 and a selection of 1960s coffee pots for a very reasonable £2.99 but they weren't for us. I did make one purchase, though.

A suitably bright and groovy 1970s nylon maxi skirt. Acorns had a "three for two" clothing promotion but it was the only thing in the remotest bit interesting, the rest of the stock was a sad 1990s time warp of Next bias cut dresses and polyester work trousers.

Cancer UK was full of nutters gazing blankly at the bric-a-brac shelves, muttering to themselves and blocking the aisles. There were quite a few nursing home dresses in here, 100% polyester with a zip front and the deceased owner's name scribbled on the collar in marker pen which always make me feel sad.  I spotted a lovely set of boxed 1960s Ravenscroft glasses for £6 but I've already got far more than I need.

We bought this Orkney Island tweed trilby 

...and a rather sweet '80s St Michael leather belt (which I was about to write off as knock-off Radley until I examined it further).

The Beacon Centre for the Blind was another shop with annoying customers, chatting between themselves with their coats chucked over the rails and their shopping bags cluttering up the aisles. A polite excuse me please failed to make an impact but a shoulder barge and I'm sorry, I didn't see you there soon did. The shop had an initially tempting basket of linen for 40p an item, sometimes a good source of funky fabric for patchwork, but everything was a bit wishy washy and twee.

I managed to find a couple of pretty, hand rolled scarves which are getting to be quite scarce in chazzas and when they do crop up they're usually marked up at more than I'd sell them for.

I won't be selling this one, though. A gloriously tacky souvenir scarf to add to my ever growing Spanish collection.

I clocked the striped dress in the window from across the road 'cos I can spot vintage at 100 yards. The lady at the till had a queue of customers to deal with but I jumped to the front, smiled sweetly and asked if it would be okay to take the dress off the mannequin and she was fine. You snooze, you lose!

Here it is. A cute 1970s Kittiwake beach dress, strangely marked up at a fraction of the price of the ASOS and H&M dresses, not that I'm complaining!

This type of local charity shop can go either way, sometimes the tattier ones are filled with amazing vintage pieces at silly prices but this one wasn't, just overpriced rubbish, unfortunately. Other than a couple of interesting paperbacks there wasn't anything for us here.

What we wore: Jon: 1970s wool blazer, military shirt, Topman skinnies, 1970s Doc Martens (all car booted or charity shopped) Me: Vintage Indian embroidered maxi dress (Belonged to Sabine's Mum in the 1960s), Indian chappals & beaded peacock bag (jumble sales)

My friend Romy posed by a blue wall recently so when I saw this one outside the main shopping centre I thought we'd do the same, which bemused the passing shoppers no end.

Halesowen. Our verdict? Entertaining for an hour or so. Not so much for the charity shops, more for the higher than is normal amount of weird people and downright nutters. 

I've been far too virtuous this week what with all the sewing, cleaning & cooking. Time to kick off the chappals, dial a curry and bust open the rum. Cheers!

See you soon!