Made in Northwich blogger on mission to promote her hometown

When Amanda Cope returned home from working as a drama teacher in Dubai during the lockdown last winter, she had an idea to keep herself busy, but it developed into a new career.

Her plan was to start up a new blog to advertise the best of what Northwich has to offer and get to know the town's people and business owners that little bit better.

Made in Northwich was born and the former Rudheath High School pupil hasn't looked back since.

"I'd been in Dubai for just under four years," Amanda explained.

"Covid obviously hit and it was very full-on over there.

"With so many ex-pat kids at the school I taught at, hundreds of them ended up leaving, so the company had to make some cuts.

"Although I could have stayed, it just felt like it was maybe the right time to come back home."

Amanda wants to encourage everyone to shop and eat local

Having decided to take a break from teaching, it was a short video she posted on Facebook that went viral and made her realise she was on to something.

"I had quite a few friends who had started their own businesses in lockdown," she went on.

"It was so inspiring and it was amazing how the situation brought out peoples creative sides.

"I thought it was a shame I could see what they were doing, but other people in Northwich maybe couldn't.

"So I asked if people would be interested if I set this page up to advertise what they were doing and the response was amazing."

There were around 200 businesses who contacted Amanda in the days that followed, with the idea clearly proving to be a hit.

"I started to form a plan then of what the page might look like," she added.

"It started with businesses just sending me pictures of their products, before I moved back last December and was able to meet people in person.

"I just loved it and thought it was amazing to meet all these people, who were just so positive.

"And then obviously the floods happened in January and I saw another side to it.

"So I'd created this page and thought there was more I could do to help, so I teamed up with the guys who organised the Walk, Run and Ride fundraiser."

Having studied perforamance arts at university Amanda is a natural in front of the camera

It was at that point Amanda developed the business by creating video content, visiting shops and cafes around the town and showing people the extent of the flood damage.

"All of the skills I'd picked up over the years seemed to be transferable," she said.

"I'm able to do it full time now and its taken me into different opportunities that I never would have expected.

"It's led to the page having a business directory, where people can easily find what they're looking for.

"I think Northwich has huge potential and you can see it changing month on month.

"I'd love to see more independents, like bakeries and sweet shops,

"It would be amazing to see all these small businesses home-grown during lockdown grow into having their own shops.

"The whole point of the page is simply to encourage people to shop, eat and drink local.

"We are also supporting local business owners with their social media and working with them on how they can grow online and create great content.

"We manage social media pages for a number of businesses and also do one to one workshops too."

You can follow Amanda's page via madeinorthwich.co.uk and on both Facebook and Instragram @madeinnorthwich