A Cumbrian businesswoman is creating up to 10 jobs after buying a popular online jewellery retailer and moving its operations to Irthington.

Sarah Patterson already employs five people in the village with her own online gifts company, By Molly&Izzie, and has acquired London-based Lily Belle.

Lily Belle was one of the first companies on the successful Not On The High Street website. It has been trading for 14 years and offers a range of high-end jewellery gifts.

Sarah plans to run the Lily Belle brand separately alongside By Molly&Izzie which has grown rapidly in the three years since she began making personalised jewellery and wish bracelets from her kitchen table.

Sarah, 33, said: “The opportunity to buy Lily Belle fell into my lap, It wasn’t something I was planning to do, but I couldn’t let it pass by.

“Lily Belle is a highly successful and nationally known brand. I like the idea that we are reversing the normal trend and bringing a London-based success story to Cumbria and basing it here in our Irthington studio.”

Sarah, who lives in Irthington with husband Ryan and children Merryn, six, and Arlo, three, started her business as a something to do as a new mum, but it quickly snowballed.

Sarah said: “It just went crazy around Christmas and now we have a team of five. We have taken orders from virtually every country in the world and export a lot to the US. We expect to be hiring five full-time and five part-time staff to help meet the demand for Lily Bell products. It’s a new chapter for me, but no matter how big the brands get, I will always keep it locally based.”