Hill & Coulter candles

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Isn’t it wonderful when marvellous things happen right on your doorstep? In Jo’s case, this is literally true, with the arrival of Hill & Coulter in her seaside home town of Hastings.

Opened by two dynamic young men with a love of retail (and fragrance), Hill & Coulter is a greengrocer – with a difference. Right now, at the back of the shop - behind the crisp salads, the Brussels sprout walking sticks and the leafy Sicilian lemons - you’ll find a ‘scented grotto’ (they call it their ‘Christmas room’) showcasing their lovely range of scented candles.

The smells are just fab, and at £12, the prices reasonable. Brilliant stocking fillers, the aromas range from their bestselling smoky Pigs in Blankets through to this trio which Jo picked up: warm, sensual Amber & Patchouli (headed the way of a patchouli-holic young family member), softly petal-powered Dreamer (happens to be the nickname of Jo’s stepdaughter, without giving too much away), and Satellite of Love, which is harder to describe – but if outer space had a smell, Jo thinks it would be a bit like this: cool, mineralic, intriguing.

Now, the snag is that Jasper (Hill) and Otis (Coulter) don’t have a way you can order online. But honestly, if you’re looking for somewhere exciting to do some last-minute Christmas shopping, you couldn’t find anywhere better than Hastings Old Town. Not On The High Street co-founder Holly Tucker recently visited and declared Hastings and St. Leonards’s independent retailer landscape to be the most exciting she’d seen in years.

ill & Coulter is just one of too-many-to-count fab indie stores (quite a few of them have featured on Jo’s @jofairley Instagram over the months), and you’re assured of the warmest welcome.

Quite aside from the gentle heat of a flickering Hill & Coulter candle wick wafting gorgeous scents down the High Street, that is…

Hill & Coulter/52 High Street, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3EN – 0800 689 4358

hillandcoulter.com