Milner’s Florist, Goole: The oldest flower shop in Yorkshire

Yorkshire Post

Yorkshire's oldest florist Milners in Goole which was founded in 1857 and is considered the oldest in the UK in fact.   Here's how the six family generations kept it going for nearly 170 years through the Second World War, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis.

Transcript

00:00I'm Samantha Rulner's florist, established in 1857 for a sixth generation family business spanning 167 years.

00:09Last year, by surprise, we found out that we were the UK's oldest florist shop, which was quite an accolade and one we're very proud of.

00:16So we have to keep the family flag going for future generations.

00:20The community in Gould is very special. Obviously, we've been here such a long time.

00:25When people come in, customers, brides, we're doing their flowers, the mum's flowers, they often say even the grandma's flowers.

00:32We're here for the good times, we're here for the sad times as well, unfortunately.

00:36But because it's a small town, we've got such a good reputation locally, we've forged good relationships.

00:43We've got a lot of loyal staff here. One of our florists, Janet, has been here since she was 16, so she's been here over 40 years.

00:51We must be doing something right. She's had breaks to raise her family, but she's kept coming back.

00:56Valentine's is really busy, but it's a bit last minute. Mother's Day is the busiest of all the peaks,

01:00because sadly, even if mum's aren't no longer with us, we still provide a lot of flowers for the cemetery and church.

01:06We're quite a team. There's 12 members of staff, but there's just the four of us family members here out of the sixth generation.

01:12Myself and my sister, Jessica, take care of the day-to-day running of the shop.

01:15My dad, Howard, my mum, Anne. But who'd have thought six generations later, when Joseph Milner started the business, that we'd still be going.

01:24I'm tidier than Sam.

01:28Just putting it out there.

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