odgers & mcclelland exchange stores

What a store. It was like walking back in time. Everything you need for an old country kitchen. My wife and mother in law loved it. They looked at everything and looked again. The store is well presented and the lady running the store was wonderful. Thank you for a great experience. Well worth seeing.

There are several great reasons to visit Nundle, a small goldmining village in the western foothills of the Great Dividing Range, about 60km from Tamworth. Odgers + McClelland Exchange Stores is definitely one of them.This wonderful old store was first established in the early 1890s by John Odgers and William McClelland. And yes we did mean to write 1890s.Odgers + McClelland sold everything the surrounding farming community required. The store kept going for a long time, but eventually ceased trading. It was reopened by tree change couple Duncan and Megan Trousdale in 1999. Their plan was to re-create it's original "rural pre-war general merchant" feel within it's still existing roughly built, tough as nails 1890s depression era exterior.The result makes a magical place to visit. According to it's present owners a lot of it's original internal fittings ("gas lights, packing case shelves/lining and employee graffiti") remain. This makes visiting the store truly like walking into the past. Part of this atmosphere is created by the owners' thoughtful and care-filled stock curation - each item stocked must be "useful, simple and implicitly well-designed". This makes the store a gold mine not only for those who appreciate beauty and simplicity, but for those living sustainable lifestyles. This is the place to come if you are looking for classics like enamel ware, cast iron cookware and trivets, wicker baskets, cotton tea towels, leather gardening gloves, old fashioned tin and wooden toys, well designed compost buckets, English shaving brushes, copper thread sponges for washing up, pastel shaded garden twines ..... the list is endless. It really would be a joy, sourcing products for this store :)We discovered this store about five years ago. Looking around our home as we write this review we can spot at least five items purchased from Odgers + McClelland. None of them look like they are going to stop functioning soon. And they are, all, indeed, beautifully designed. 5 stars from us. Visit them soon.