Antique shops up for top award (From Free Press Series)

Antique shops up for top award

MONMOUTH has been short-listed in a national competition as one of the best towns in Britain for its antiques.

The town was included in the Miller's Club Best town/village section of the British Antiques and Collectables Awards 2004 along with Petworth in West Sussex and Dorking in Surrey.

The competition, now in its fourth year, recognises excellence across the antiques and collectables industry.

Nick Frost of Frost Antiques, the second generation to run the family business which has been trading in Priory Street for 40 years, said: "This nomination is a surprise as there are only three of us trading in Monmouth. It must mean that what we lack in quantity we have in quality."

Nick Wheatley owner of The House-1860-1925 said: "The other two nominated towns have an abundance of antique shops and for Monmouth to be short-listed is good news for the town, I can only assume that the ambience of Monmouth itself has been included in the judge's evaluation."

Edward Smith of Agincourt House Antiques said: "It's amazing that the judges should pick on a town like Monmouth. I can only imagine it is because we have a differing range of shops within the town.

"We've been told that people like the way we set out our wares across the pavement where we make a good show of the items we have."

It's not the first time the shop in Agincourt Square has hit the national headlines for it was unwittingly at the centre of the Angel of Mons film hoax in 2002.

A canister of film, containing the images of the Angel of Mons, was claimed to have been bought in the junk shop by an enthusiast who later said he had discovered the long lost images of an angel floating above the trenches in the First World War.

He told the world's media that he had sold the rights to Hollywood movie-makers and that Marlon Brando had shown an interest at taking on the lead role.

But in October 2002 BBC Radio 4 revealed that the whole scheme had been an elaborate hoax.

A Cardiff artist has compared buying a carpet at the Agincourt Square shop with a bazaar in Turkey.

David Maw Cornish from Penarth said: "The rug-buying experience with the road and pavement spread with rugs was unusual and agreeable, a little like being in the Middle East without the smell. "So as a souvenir I made a small sketch of the scene."