What a refreshing change

Not that they set out to make it an all-woman enclave. "It just sort of happened," says Karen Ross.

She took over Piccolo, the children's clothes shop on the ground floor 18 months ago. She'd been a dental nurse for 17 years, then had her daughter Emily and was a regular customer of the shop.

"When I came in one day and heard it was up for sale, it seemed the obvious thing to take it over."

The clothes, she says, are the modern side of traditional - some smocking and bows, but a lot of simple little dresses from the continent, in vivid pretty colours. Clothes for girls and boys up to about age ten or 12. Emily, now aged four, is chief consumer tester for many of the outfits. "Then I can tell people, honestly, how well they wash and wear," says Karen.

She sells white Confirmation dresses, from around £75, also sells and hires out Christening robes, very traditional - some almost as elaborate as wedding dresses. You can buy them from around £130 or hire them for £55.

"What if the baby's sick all over them?" I ask. "Then we get them dry cleaned," says Karen, very relaxed as she cuddles a customer's baby. "These things happen. It's nothing to worry about."

When she bought the shop, the upstairs premises were empty. It made sense to let them out. It was a bonus that all the tenants turned out to be women and that they all get on so well together.

Upstairs, narrow and a bit steep, is Hopscotch, children's shoes. Start-rite shoes as well as more unusual continental makes.

Next door is Forget Me Not, where June Evans lives in a world of aromatherapy and dolls' houses. She trained as a pharmacy dispenser but got interested in aromatherapy 12 years ago.

"It wasn't even New Age-ish then, more old ladies who knew that complementary medicines worked."

For many years she was in Buckton's Yard, then moved to 36 Priestgate last year ("a great place to work, because we all get on so well together") and is now also concentrating on doll's houses and miniatures, "because it's a growing adult hobby," she says.

She herself is fascinated by the kitchen equipment - tiny bowls and pans and rolling pins. "But I think it's important that adults have a chance to play too, and this gives them the chance to do it," she adds.

Upstairs again, and I swear the stairs have got narrower and steeper, to Eileen's Beauty Treatment - which is where all the women in the building tend to visit and treat themselves.

Then finally, there's Not the Norm, which is actually a tiny voluble American called Michelle, who's all trained up with computers but has wanted to have a bead shop ever since her sister's high school prom. "She wanted some really special jewellery but couldn't find it, so we made it ourselves," she says. Michelle - who's from Chicago but married a lad from Blyth - makes amazingly cheap earrings, necklaces, chokers and head-dresses, using mostly Austrian crystal, glass beads and semi-precious stones, including lovely chunks of amber.

Her earrings start from £1. Just about the most expensive item in the shop is £25.

A lady calls in with an elaborately sequinned evening top in a rainbow of colours. Michelle carefully goes through her vast selection of beads and manages to find a selection in exactly the same shades. "I'll put these together. Come back in an hour and see what you think."

She used to have a barrow in the Cornmill and has taught at Bishop Auckland College. She regularly does demonstrations for WIs and other women's groups.

She will happily make things to order. She's currently working on a head-dress like the one Catherine Zeta Jones wore at her wedding. "I worked out the design on the computer," she says. She finds the English more reticent than Americans about asking for just what they want.

Her tiny workshop overflows with boxes and boxes of beads and stones in all possible colours. "If you want anything to match an outfit, I can do it. Things don't have to be expensive to look good," she adds.

* The shops at 36 Priestgate, Darlington. Piccolo Childrenswear, tel. 252533, Open Mon-Sat, 10am-5pm. Closed Weds; Hopscotch, Shoes for Kids, Open Mon-Sat, 10am-5pm. Closed Weds. Tel: 247033; Forget Me Not, gifts, aromatherapy, dried flowers, dolls; houses and miniatures. Open Thurs-Sat, 10.30am-4.30pm. Tel. 286143; Eileen's Beauty Treatments, Open Mon, Tues, Thurs, 10am - 5pn; Fri, Sat, 10am-4pm. Tel: 259 900; Not the Norm, hand-made jewellery. Open Mon- Fri 10.30-4.30. Other times happily by appointment. Tel: 07710 218354.