A quaint village on the edge of Merseyside is a haven for family-run businesses. You won’t find giant conglomerates lining every street corner. Instead, you’ll discover small, independent venues that have been passed down through generations, continuing to draw customers with queues out the door and people willing to travel for miles.
Churchtown is a stamped in time village nestled within the northern fringe of Southport. The buildings boast thatched roofs and white paint brick wallss, with brick laid streets and Victorian style lampposts lighting the way.
The village dates back to early Anglo-Saxon times with a vintage touch drawing people from afar to enjoy the classic offerings.
A world-class chocolatier with a knack for whipping up a storm in the kitchen has been delivering fine, handmade chocolates to village for years. Robert Swinden is the force behind The Chocolates of Churchtown, which has people travelling all over the North West for the shop’s extravagant and unique flavours and offerings.
Robert worked as a pastry chef from 1990 before moving to confectionary in hotels. Spelling the beginning of around-the-world travelling, he hopped across the world to work and train with Koko Black – a handcrafted premium chocolate – alongside Belgian friends from the chocolate line in Bruges.
He told the ECHO: “Bruges-style chocolates were the main focus. I worked with them for eight years, going into new shops and helping them open. My daughter was born in Australia and my wife’s family are in Formby. Mine are scattered everywhere from here to New Zealand.”
Returning to the UK in 2010, Robert once again turned his hand to pastry, sharing his expertise by teaching the next generation along the way. In 2016, he opened his first store in Ainsdale, creating a home for his own vision and the beginnings of what would become The Chocolate Shop.
Originally named Ainsdale Fine Chocolate, it marked the start of the brand as we know it today. He said: “I always knew I wanted my own place. I knew that since 2003 when I was with Koko Black. In between I did markets and food festivals, just to gauge what sort of interest there was and to practice.
“It was a bit of a slow start but it was something completely different. Similar to Melbourne, they hadn’t seen that thing before, which is what I wanted to bring here. We’re all about Belgian pralines. That’s the core of the business.”
Robert and The Chocolate shop thrived in Ainsdale for five years before spotting the current premises in Churchtown. He said: “It just looked like a chocolate shop. I believe the landlord changed, we couldn’t get the air con we wanted in Ainsdale, a few other factors came up and we just decided to move.
“The shop used to have handmade chocolates they bought in maybe 20 or 30 years ago, so we tried to recreate a similar signage from back in the day.”
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The move proved beneficial for the tourist footfall alone, but Robert’s customers are made up of “80 – 90% locals from the village.” He said: “People come from all over. We get people travelling from Liverpool, Yorkshire and Lancashire. Quite a few Americans as well.”
Gift boxes and a continuous overturn of quirky and fascinating flavours you won’t find anywhere else is what keeps people coming back. Flavours are themed locally with options including Southport Vanilla Swan, Dixie Dean Whisky and ginger and an Everton Mint.
Day-to-day operations is like living out a kid in a candy shop’s dreams without ending, with Robert admitting: “Most of the fun comes from new ideas. My son and daughter work with me so I have to teach them how to do everything. You definitely have to have a sweet tooth, which everyone has.”
The village recently welcomed a love story in the shape of a new bookshop, The Magpie’s Tale. Mark Dickens and Emma Legan first connected as pen pals. Over the years, their friendship blossomed into romance, and they have now been together as a couple for more than 35 years.
In that time, they worked together in Waterstones but knew they always wanted a bookshop to call their own. Mark told the ECHO: “It’s been a dream of ours. We looked around for a while and finally found a premises suitable to get started.
Although Emma was a store manager, they were without entrepreneurial knowledge, instead learning along the way how to start up and run a business. Mark added: “It’s been smooth but a few hiccups along the way, as to be expected. A few sleepless nights here and there but we got through them!”
Together, they opened The Magpie’s Tale on Botanic Road, Churchtown, on Saturday, August 1. The launch was welcomed by resounding praise from the village residents and even Alice from the Wonderland novel adventures who swung by to meet and greet families throughout the day.
Mark said: “The response has been absolutely brilliant. We definitely wanted to bring something unique and the response has been great. We have had a lifelong passion for books and reading and spent most of our working lives among them in and around Southport.”
The shop is furnished with reclaimed and repurposed furniture, and decorated with hand painted touches as Mark is also an artist and illustrator. The Magpie’s Tale’s first visitors praised the shops “beautiful” standards, saying it “fits so beautifully into our lovely village”.
Mark said: “To an extent, we’re just a tiny cosy shop with reading chairs, but we’re happy for people to come and enjoy the space.”
Two sisters who went from colleagues to owners after deciding to take a charming Southport staple into a new era are celebrating success of their own. Suzanna Mawdsley and Katie Lingard are at the helm of Remedy in Churchtown village, snapping the business up from its previous owners who decided to sell.
Remedy was first opened in 2015 by Susannah Porter and Sarah Simcock as a café and gin bar, tucked away inside the former Southport Tourist Information Office on Lord Street. The business was well received for its specialist coffees, fine malt whiskeys and artisan gins, quickly becoming a hot spot for people to gather.
It proved so popular that only a year later Remedy expanded with a second location in Churchtown. By 2018, the original site was due an upgrade and moved to the premises directly opposite to offer “bigger and better”.
Remedy continued to grow with a third site in Southport’s Beales shopping centre on Lord Street (2021) and a fourth in Bretherton, Lancashire. (2022). After years of building an empire around Southport, Susannah eventually stepped away which saw the sites closed.
In 2023, she said: “For me, it’s about stepping back a little bit. I have been working non-stop on so many different projects.”
Today, the Churchtown Remedy remains a thriving success thanks to sisters Suzanna and Katie. Suzanna told the ECHO: “We’d worked for the previous owner for well over 10 years, and then they decided to sell.
“I think because we’d both worked in hospitality all our lives and I had just turned 50, we both thought this was a good opportunity. We knew the business, we knew how it was up and running, so it felt like a good opportunity for us.”
Suzanna added: “We knew nothing, really. We sort of grew up around it. Our parents owned a shop and ran their own business, so we took the experience we had and asked for advice. It’s been a learning curve.”
Remedy was and has always been a staple of Southport, which is seen through the community the site has built across the years., Suzanna said: “We have a lot of regulars in the village. We’re very community-based, and we know a lot of people by name.
“If someone doesn’t come in for a few days, you notice it, which is really nice. A big part of what we do is chatting to the people who come in. It’s very busy so we can’t complain. The winter months after Christmas are said to be a bit quieter, but we’re always busy.”
Zadee Chambers has been at the helm of Penny’s House in Churchtown since July, and said the first few months couldn’t have gone any better.
The mum-of-one said the decision came after she realised she had lost sight of her own ambitions while working in the corporate sector. She told the ECHO: “It’s been a lifelong dream. Someone asked me quite recently, ‘Who do I do it all for?’
“I was in a very stressful corporate job and, when I sat back, I realised I’d lost connection with my own dreams and aspirations. This is about me exiting corporate life and making a bet on myself.”
Zadee said taking over the café has felt like a natural next step. The venue first opened under its current name in April 2024 but it was no longer a dedicated dog-friendly establishment.
It previously operated as The Wagging Tail Café, which originally opened its doors in early 2017 before being rebranded. Zadee said she is ready to carry on the legacy.
She said: “The best way to describe it is that it just feels right. It feels like I should be doing this. I don’t feel like I’ve just taken over Penny’s House. I feel like I’ve adopted it. It’s become a part of my soul since I started.
“It is a dog café, and that will always be at the core. We don’t just welcome dogs here, we cater for them. We recognise that they’re part of your family, so therefore they’re part of ours when you come in.”
Since taking over in July, Zadee said the response from customers and the local community has been overwhelmingly positive. Zadee also explained that she has big plans for the future, including collaborations with other independent businesses in Churchtown and expanding the café’s offering into the evenings.
She added: “Everybody’s welcomed me with open arms. I’m just a single person with a tiny family, and they’ve very generously given their time for free to help achieve my dreams and goals.
“I don’t have any corporate backing or funding streams. This is just one woman and a dream, and everybody has been so open and supportive. We’ve got lots of partnerships coming up.
