Heart of the Home is a fabulous new cookware and gift shop that opened its doors to the public on January 11 in Newport Arcade.

It is run and owned by former Wildings employee, Lesley Skiffington, who worked and managed the cookware depart for 16 years.

“It’s been a dream of mine to open my own store, even since I first started working in retail at the age of 16,” Lesley told Voice.

“I genuinely believe that people will miss Wildings and what it offered now that it’s gone, so by opening my store I’d like to think I’ve brought a little part of it with me.

“The response since opening has been fantastic, with huge support from people all over Newport, especially past Wildings customers who’ve popped in to say hello and make purchases.

“Peter James of Wildings has given his full support too, as well as from family and friends – my husband is currently help me run the store and our daughter Laura is running the social media and marketing side of things.

“We offer more specialist and select items from our store, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for we can easily source it.

“We stock things such as Welsh Cake baking stones, enamel plates and pie dishes, jam and preserve making equipment, which are usually quite hard to come by in regular stores – even items such as butchers twine to help prepare certain meats can be found here.

“We’ve taken the best elements of the Wildings department and fine-tuned it by incorporating celebratory gifts too for special occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and seasonal events.

“Hopefully we’ve given the public what they want, and we love to hear their feedback on the products they’ve purchased and what they’d like to see in our store.”

So, if you’re looking for homeware items this February, make sure you pop into Heart of the Home, where Lesley can easily assist with all your home cooking needs.

Be sure to like the Facebook page to see what’s new!

Unit 10, Newport Arcade, Newport NP20 1GD