MAIDEN History Part 3 – The Dawn of MAIDEN

As told by Josh.

In search of our new name and identity, we intrepidly journeyed up to the big smoke from little ol’ Dorset. We’d been put in touch with a branding consultant by our packaging supplier and hearing that he was in London was enough for us country bumpkins to head up for a meeting. In retrospect, we probably should’ve shopped around more or done more research, but hey, you live and learn…

We wanted a brand name which reflected better the quality and design of our products. WackyShack had served us well but we could never quite shake the feeling that with a name like that we should be selling cannabis paraphernalia. Through the brainstorming session with our new branding consultant we settled happily on the name Maiden.

The inspiration for the name came from our most local point of interest, Maiden Castle, a celtic earthwork fortress visible from our doorstep (and not from the local village of Maiden Newton as many thought!) To make matters more confusing, we often used the name Maiden Dorset, which to many sounded like Made In Dorset (cue multiple conversations with me saying “no not made in… maiden, like a lady…”). In fact, the sounding similarity to Made In Dorset was never a factor in choosing the name, but was simply a happy coincidence.

We were so happy coming away with our new name, one we felt represented strength, femininity and the area we live. We were further pleased with our tidy new logo with matching celtic design elements, although looking back now there’s definitely a hint of Starbucks to it! Tying the whole package together was our new branded packaging. We felt finally that we had a real serious business.

This is when we entered the intense market phase of our life cycle.

But before we go down that road, around this time we also had an important new addition to our life, one that would influence our day-to-day work no end. Enter our beloved cockapoo, Toff.

I think we were hoping that she would become a de facto mascot to the company and therefore have a tax deductible marketing value, but instead she became a constant, but loveable, work distraction. From the days we couldn’t put her down as a puppy, to the days she followed us around the workshop constantly looking for attention. We even tried setting her up with one of those automatic ball throwers, she never got the hang of it… So instead we split our candle making days up with little trips to the grassy bit of rough land down the side of the industrial estate. Although we can definitely thank Toff for adding some enforced exercise and a bit of fresh air to the day, and making sure we were taking a break too!

Back to the markets! This is where many of you will have first come across Maiden. As we said before, we started selling our candles on Bridport market. This then progressed to exhibiting at some other local markets and shows including Kingston Maurward and the monthly Winchester street market. Whilst trading in Winchester, we heard whispers from other traders (this is the primary method of finding out about worthwhile markets) about applying for the month long Christmas market held locally.

We started off by humbly applying for a chalet for 2 weeks at Winchester Christmas Market. This then evolved over the following years to attending the entire month. But at first, with only three of us, this was quite an undertaking. It worked a bit like this:

Dad would drive up each day to Winchester with a car full of stock, unload into the chalet and then sell his heart out. Whilst defrosting in the car on the drive home, he’d phone us back at the workshop with a list of what he needed for the following day. This always ended up being much more stock than what we had in the workshop! So to keep things rolling Mum and I would then make and package up as much as we could (normally soundtracked by Kate Bush) until Dad arrived to pack up the car. And this repeated for the entirety of the market.

It was during this time, Dad gained the moniker of ‘The Candle Man’. Every market we’d turn up to, it felt like almost all the other traders were calling out to him as the candle man. Even some customers would rush breathlessly to stall and say ‘look, it’s okay, the Candle Man’s here’. Although Mum said it didn’t bother her one bit that he was the Candle Man and she wasn’t the Candle anything, it definitely did bother her… This mostly came out during our late night making and packing sessions.

After the first year or two of doing Winchester, we’d started dedicating more time to Maiden and were able to actually make stock all year round and refine that process. But just when it was getting easier, Dad had his eyes on another market to conquer, the Bath Christmas Market, which ran concurrently with Winchester. This would mean some serious planning to pull off.

In 2014, for the first time, we attended both Bath and Winchester Christmas Markets at the same time. Dad was helming Bath and I was at Winchester. Poor Mum, was stuck at home with the dog, the candles and the web orders. In her mind, Dad and I were off sauntering around our prospective markets having a whale of a time, which was partly true, but it’s hard to saunter when you’re freezing cold! One time Mum had to make the drive from Dorchester to Winchester to Bath on an emergency stock run. Exhaustion got the better of her causing her to accidentally turn her headlights off, temporarily making her believe she’d gone blind. Fortunately, no accident followed.

If you’re related to us or one of our close friends, no doubt you’ve been barraged many times with stories from our time at these markets. I won’t put any down here (for the sake of our reputation) but they include stories of strange interactions with other market attendees, two van accidents in one day (one our fault, the other not), turning up late at night to the storage facility to eerily find no-one there, being blocked entry to a different storage facility by another trader who promised he’d be ‘ten minutes’, and most importantly, my yearly market beard growing.

Needless to say, selling our candles at these and many other markets really made Maiden what it is today. They were an incredible experience to say the least and an introduction to many of you reading this newsletter. Markets were a big part of our life right up until 2020, for obvious reasons… But between then and now, we’ve had a few important developments in our life and also a few new ideas for the future.