Captain Neil finds gold as Northamptonshire toy shop wins award

Neil Waite (left) and John Cable with the award

Captain Neil’s Toy Chest, in Market Street, received the most votes in the Pride of Wellingborough competition which rated customer service, atmosphere and quality of offering.

Fancy dress shop House of Fun on the High Street came second and in third place was Cambridge Street’s Rockabilly Rose the Florist.

Owner Neil Waite said: “Winning this award means a lot to me and I’m so grateful to each and every person who voted for us.

“I’d also like to thank all our loyal customers who shared the competition on their own Facebook page and encouraged people to back us.

“I think the Pride of Wellingborough Awards are great as they’re helping to raise the profile of local businesses.

“I feel particularly proud to receive this recognition in my own home town.” The competition was designed to find Wellingborough’s favourite shop, restaurant and pub in a bid to encourage more people to shop locally.

It was organised by the Wellingborough Business Improvement District (BID) – which is paid for by town centre businesses – through the Discover Wellingborough campaign.

A weekly review of each participating business was posted on the Discover Wellingborough website and shoppers were invited to vote for their favourite.

Captain Neil’s Toy Chest, which stocks a wide range of action figures, play sets and games, received 84 votes for customer service, 80 for atmosphere and 82 in the quality of offering category.

The total number of votes was 246, beating House of Fun by 34 and Rockabilly Rose the Florist by 61.

BID manager John Cable said: “We launched the competition to showcase the best of our great town centre, reminding people about all of the businesses we have on our doorstep.

“Captain Neil’s Toy Chest is a wonderful addition to the town which has a huge range of exciting and unique places to shop at, not to mention all the great places we have to eat and drink at.

“There’s more to Wellingborough than meets the eye – and we believe we’ve showcased the best our town has to offer throughout the competition.”

Captain Neil’s Toy Chest is open between 9am to 5pm from Monday to Saturday.