Rocking horse donated to charity store

Monday 8 February 2010 

A company that makes traditional wooden rocking horses has donated a horse worth over £2,000 for the window of Rockinghorse’s new charity shop in George Street, Hove.

Owners, Harry and Judy Cridland, were inspired to open Ringinglow Rocking Horse Co. after creating their first rocking horse to celebrate the birth of their son in 1999.  Soon after, they bought a public toilet across the road from where they lived in Sheffield and turned it into a rocking horse shop. Their first celebrity buyer, who kick started sales for the Cridland’s, was former Sheffield Wednesday Captain, Trond Egil Soltvedt.

Since then, the couple has branched out to make other traditional wooden toys, such as dolls houses and tractors and the brand has many celebrity fans including Kate Moss, Posh and Becks and Sharon Stone.

Each horse takes 70 hours to create from scratch and no one horse is the same. The company also makes bespoke rocking horses for children with disabilities. Harry Cridland, owner of Ringinglow Rocking Horse Co, said: “It’s incredibly important to support charities and we always give away one horse a year that will in some way benefit a charity.

“It seemed very apt to choose Rockinghorse and we are pleased to have one of our creations on display in the new store.”

Rockinghorse’s first shop opened in December last year and raised over £800 in sales on its first day.  If you would like to donate any good quality clothing or bric-a-brac to the store, or you would like to volunteer to work as a shop assistant, call Rockinghorse on 01273 730286. The shop is open Monday – Saturday from 10am-5pm.