Located on The Colonnades at the Royal Albert Dock, Natures Treasure is a family-run shop specialising in crystals, minerals and jewellery.
The family-run shop has been a firm fixture at the docks since 1986, having started out as a cart on the Anchor Courtyard. With crystals rising in popularity in recent years, the shop has gained a loyal fanbase - with some customers even coming from overseas to visit each year.
Clare Pryal, 47, from Bromborough has been working at her family's shop since she was 11. Explaining the history behind the business, she said: "Natures Treasure has always been based on the Albert Dock and is the longest standing shop in the area. We started out in the Anchor Courtyard, where my nan and grandad used to run the shop from a cart.
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"We started out selling real leaves, from there we moved to natural items before we started selling in the shop. The business started out because my nan and grandad were looking for something to do as they were retiring.
"It all started out with real leaves, which they had seen become popular in America and decided to bring over here. It's a real family run business - I've always done this since I was 11. We got into selling crystals about 25 or 30 years ago, it goes hand in hand with nature really.
"Crystals have definitely become more popular over the years. It took time for everyone to be able to understand them. The most popular products we sell are the crystals and the jewellery. Crystals have become huge now."
The rising popularity of crystals has been felt at Natures Treasure, who have attract customers from all over the world. Clare added: "We get lots of tourists coming in - people visiting from the cruise ships. We also have some visitors who come to the shop from America every year.
"There's plenty of loyal regulars too, who have now become friends that we know by name. We get young kids coming in and asking us for advice - some as young as six who are starting their own collections. Teenagers love buying our chip bracelets.
"Some customers spend as much as £50 a week here, but we have products starting from £1 upwards. Lots of people love the crystals for their healing purposes and everything in the shop is Fairtrade and we always try and buy products made in Britain.
"We always love welcoming customers and are happy to help anyone who wants to know any information on the different crystals we sell. There's a team of us here and we'll always help out the best we can."
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