Dancers Fashion of Brigg

Security blinds

When the Dancers Plus fashion store on Wrawby street was set on fire by a local arsonist, the owners, Diane and Tony, were left devastated. To them it wasn't just a shop - it was a way of life. Nevertheless, with the passage of time - and continued assistance, advice and counselling from Victim Support - they have recovered their natural optimism and are happy to be serving the public again.

Dancers Plus has been completely refurbished with new carpets and a new lighting system and an internal security blind system has been fitted within the windows.

One positive outcome of the events is that Diane and Tony have had time to think about their business and how it can be improved. As well as fashion clothing, they decided to broaden out into fashion shoes, boots and leather goods. The new Fancy Feet shoe and boot store is located in the existing Dancers shop.

The Dancers stores are so well known and respected in the wider Brigg district that it is easy to forget that they opened their first shop only two and a half years ago. Tony and Diane's connection with Brigg and each other, however, goes much further back: twenty years in fact.

Building Fancy Feet

When Falcon Cycles moved their factory to Brigg from the west midlands, Tony moved with his work to the town. Diane had a part time job several nights a week as a barmaid at the Horse and Cart in Scawby Brook. It was there that they first met and began to go out.

Changes at work meant that Tony had to move to Wales and they lost touch with each other. It might have remained that way had it not been for a chance meeting.

Both Tony and Diane had been married and had children. Indeed, Tony had been married more than once: each time his new relationship taking him to a different life. Once living in Spain, then in Windsor near London where he worked again with cycles and then back to Manchester. He was left unemployed in Manchester and by chance - or by good fortune - he grasped an opportunity to change his career. He bought some ladies pedal pushers cheap and headed to Hemswell to sell them on the market.

Diane had been living as a single parent and - to make ends meet - she began to trade antiques - also on Hemswell market. They met once again and began to go to markets together throughout the region ending up with a stall in Brigg Market Place.

Although they both enjoyed the lifestyle, the winter weather became too much for them. During their last winter as market traders the clothes on their stall became white with frost and they needed to keep drinking Irish coffees from the Woolpack Hotel to keep them from freezing too.

Diane - who had worked in her parents shop "Clixbys" in Scunthorpe since she was a young child - took matters in hand, worked out some figures and then decided to open a shop. Partly for economic reasons but also to escape the bitter weather.

Despite the setbacks, Diane and Tony are still passionate about their lives and their work. Perhaps "work" is the wrong word: meeting customers who return later to become friends doesn't seem like work to them. Fancy Feet - their newest venture - is sure to add to Brigg's growing image as a fashion centre.