This series of interviews is designed for you to get to know a little more personally, the people who’ve chosen Rye as their home or place of work.
This week the subject of the interview is Peter Farrow, who together with his wife Lesley, owns Niche Boutique. They have been in their present shop since 2010.
Twitter or Instagram?
Instagram. I don’t use social media very much. Lesley puts photos of the jewellery I’ve made on Instagram for me. Most of my work is commission, it’s personal recommendation, so it’s word of mouth really.
Eat in or go out?
Eat in. We eat very well at home.
Music or talk radio?
Both. I have Radio 4 on when I’m working. But sometimes it gets to the point when I think there’s too much stuff I don’t really want to know.
Football or rugby?
Football. My team’s Arsenal. I come from St Albans and that was the North London local-ish football team.
Sand or shingle?
Sand. I don’t like walking barefoot on shingle beaches. We had two lovely holidays on an island called Porto Santo off Madeira, with a lovely beach, miles long.
Gold Or silver?
Gold. Gold. Cos that’s what I work in. I prefer gold, it’s more precious.
Cinema or theatre?
Neither. Not a big fan of either. Cinema I suppose. It’s much more convenient with the Kino, rather than a trip to London to the theatre or Brighton or somewhere.
Dog or cat?
Dog. We’ve had dogs for 30 years I suppose. I wasn’t interested in animals before that, but my daughters persuaded me to get a golden retriever puppy and since then we’ve had dogs.
Sundays or Mondays?
Sundays. Hate Mondays. Sunday’s the only day we get off, so that’s the day we do things at home, have family round, probably drink too much on a Sunday. And then back to work on a Monday.
Why Rye?
I was at college in Brighton. I then worked for a very short time in the Lanes in Brighton repairing jewellery. Then I got a call from a friend who worked for a very famous jeweller, John Donald, who had a house and workshop in Northiam. He trained me and I worked for him for ten years. I lived in Rye, so when I left him I opened my own business in Rye. I prefer towns to villages. I had a workshop above Rye Tiles, above Rye Pottery. That’s where I started in 1983. My first little shop was in Needles Passage. Then I moved to Cinque Ports Street, along the road here where Teddy’s Barbers is now, I was there for 14 years. Lesley then took over Niche in East Street. When this came up, we thought perfect, so we bought this property and moved our businesses in together. It works really well.
Image Credits: Natasha Robinson .