Quirky might be a way to describe Andrew Blackall’s antiques shop which is both Number 56 and 70 in the High Street, Corsham. “It’s the old poor house,” he explains. “It was burnt down, then rebuilt and split into two units. The front is 70 and the back is 56 but is rated as one building.”
No sooner had Blackall opened Chairman Antiques in October in the Wiltshire town, than he had to close it when the second lockdown kicked off at the beginning of November.
He grew to love antiques when he visited stately homes as a child and now specialises in furniture from the 17th to 19th centuries.