UP CLOSE: With Godalming Party Company owner Sindy Hammond-Jones.

Godalming Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We profile some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'Up Close in Godalming'.

Today we talk to Sindy, who has moved her business from the High Street to Hambledon, and is busy making birthdays and other big events a special occasion for families across the area.

Hallowe'en is a busy time of year for Godalming Party Company owner Sindy Hammond-Jones.

Her shop at The Old Coal Yard in Hambledon is a treasure trove of spooky decorations, tableware and accessories, (a hair-raising collection including fake blood, axes and daggers, eyeballs and spiders) that will help you mark the occasion in style.

But the fact that her business is here at all is testament to the support she has had from friends and neighbours, and to the tenacity of Sindy herself.

Sindy opened the Godalming Party Shop, in the upper High Street near the Pepperpot, 17 years ago. The business was a success, and as well as serving customers Sindy was instrumental in many of the initiatives organised by Godalming' s independent retailers, including the Christmas festival.

But with the pandemic came a huge setback: in the first week of lockdown, her landlord gave her notice to leave.

With six months to vacate the shop where she had built up her business, Sindy was left looking around for a new base as well as coping with the loss of revenue and the uncertainty brought by the pandemic. As a mum to two young daughters, she was also coping with a family life that had been turned upside down by lockdown.

And she had to disband the team that had worked so well together, making her four members of staff redundant. "Out of the whole thing, that was the hardest for me," she says.

"I had to close the door on my business, and I wasn't sure it was going to open again.

"As I was packing up the shop my neighbour popped by with a box of brownies and we started having a conversation."

That conversation led to Sindy setting up business in Hambledon, sharing a barn with that neighbour, Nelly's Bakes owner Molly Field.

Another friend set up a website for her and "That was it - it's gone from there," she says.

She sold birthday balloon bouquets via the website, delivering them herself during the daytime and into the evening.

Now she has set up shop in Hambledon, her customers are making the slightly longer journey out to find her.

In fact for many people, she says, it's a better option than her last premises.

"There's an ease here compared to the High Street. The parking on the High Street is very expensive. People can drive here and park up right outside, grab what they need and go."

There is no doubt, though, that she has missed out on some passing trade at this very busy time of year.

"Hallowe'en is the hardest pill I have had to swallow this year," she says. In other years she has run a Hallowe'en Extravaganza at The Pepperpot, with crafts, games and dressing up for children.

Pre-Covid, children could follow a trick-or-treat trail around the town, but of course the pandemic has put a stop to that.

However, undaunted, she has gone ahead and organised a Hallowe'en Scarecrow Trail, with the support of 36 businesses around the town.

"The feedback and the support I have had is incredible," she says, paying tribute to other retailers and businesses in the town who are working hard to keep the community spirit alive.

And she's already gearing up to produce a Christmas trail as well.

It's been a question of adapting to survive this year, and Sindy has done just that: she is offering Hallowe'en party boxes for those of us who are marking the occasion at home, with decorations and dressing-up accessories to make it as much fun as possible.

She is also planning Christmas and New Year party boxes, for a festive season that is bound to be a challenge for many of us.

And her motto? "Head down, keep going, hope for the best," she says resolutely.

"If I can bring an activity that people can do and look forward to, it brings a lot of positivity.

"It's about finding something to do and seeing how you can make it work."

Click here to visit the Party Company website, and here to see the Facebook page.