Amy Ramsbottom, 20, had barely got the paint dry on her first shop in Culcheth before the CPS Centre situation turned into the sort of small-business nightmare nobody orders with their morning coffee.
Amy, from Atherton, started making handmade jewellery in her bedroom two and a half years ago after buying a beading set from Amazon. What began as a hobby quickly became something far more serious, with Amy training at The Fox Studios in Warrington while also working as a trainee accountant. That is not just multitasking, that is a calendar crying for mercy.
With support from her mum, Joanne Hazeldine, Amy opened her first shop in the CPS Centre in November 2024. She spent more than £2,000 renovating the space, turning it into a proper little showcase for her bespoke jewellery. By all accounts, the place suited her perfectly, surrounded by other small businesses and the sort of neighbourly help Culcheth is usually proud of.
Then came Thursday, January 30, 2025, when the owners of the CPS Centre handed tenants formal notices terminating their licences at the premises. Thirty days. For traders who had invested money, time and hope into those units, that is not just inconvenient, it is devastating. Culcheth loves to talk about supporting local businesses, but moments like this show how fragile that support can be when decisions land like a dropped anvil.
Amy said she felt gutted, and honestly, who would not? She had only just settled in. One of the other shop owners came in crying after receiving the eviction email, which tells you everything about the shockwaves this caused. This was not a simple reshuffle, it was people watching plans they had built with their own hands suddenly wobble.
After leaving the CPS Centre, Amy moved to a space at the Partridge Lakes Unit on Glaziers Lane, about a five-minute drive away. Now, Partridge Lakes is lovely in its own right, and some businesses have settled well there, but Amy’s point is fair: jewellery thrives on passing trade. People do not always set off on a pilgrimage for a ring, they spot something shiny in a window and suddenly their bank card is making decisions.
At the CPS Centre, Amy could lay out stones and styles for customers to browse in person, then create one-of-a-kind pieces from those choices. That matters when the work is so personal. Her designs include fingerprint necklaces and ash jewellery, where cremation ashes can be set beneath a stone with resin. That sort of work deserves care, privacy and face-to-face trust. It does not belong shoved into a purely online setup like a discount phone charger.
Amy is now hoping for a shop front in a village such as Culcheth or Atherton, where people can actually stumble across her work. She has also been collaborating with other small businesses across Warrington and Greater Manchester, including workshops at The Snug Coffee House in Atherton with owner Rachael Flaszczak.
Those workshops sound like one of the genuinely bright bits in all this. Around four or five people usually take part, stamping rings and making something personal. On June 1, Amy and Rachael are hosting a Bangle and Breakfast workshop, pairing jewellery-making with The Snug’s Special Breakfast, which is the kind of civilised creativity I can get behind.
The original report by Grace Williams also came wrapped in a USA Today and The Herald partnership note, which feels oddly grand for a very local Culcheth retail headache, but here we are. The bigger point is simpler: Amy Ramsbottom did what we keep asking young entrepreneurs to do. She trained, invested, opened up, collaborated and brought something distinctive to the village. The way things played out at the CPS Centre and Leisure Shopping Culcheth has left a sour taste, even if Amy’s resilience is genuinely impressive.
Amy’s jewellery can be found through www.ajewelleryx.com, TikTok @ajewelleryxx, Etsy AJewelleryx and Instagram @ajewelleryxx.