Everyone is finding it tough at the moment and wants life to get back to normal.

We will be profiling local independent businesses regularly over the coming weeks in a feature called UP CLOSE IN MALDON DISTRICT to help showcase our town centre and village traders. By spending locally, you help support local jobs - and so build our communities back stronger.

This week we talk to lockdown entrepreneur Kelsey Hornett, who is soon to open her new shop in Mill Road, Maldon.

THERE'S definitely something about Kelsey Hornett that tells you she is one of those people who looks for the positives in life and uses them to find a new way forward – and at just 29 years of age that attitude has helped her to become another fresh face behind a new business in Maldon town centre.

Bakes by Kelsey will be opening in Mill Road shortly in the little bay-windowed shop next to the former second-hand and antiques shop, offering an adventurous range of products from treat boxes, special occasion cakes and tray bakes through to take-away coffees, brownies, blondies and cup cakes.

When Maldon Nub News catches up with Kelsey, she smiles when asked what she did before.

"I was a personal trainer," she explains, "so I suppose you could say my new work is rather different to what I did before."

As with many younger people in particular, Kelsey's work was hit badly by Covid-19 and she found herself furloughed from a job she enjoyed. Her very active nature quickly led her to feel the need to channel her energy into something else as the lockdown months ticked on.

"To be honest I was getting bored at home and I've always liked baking, so I started to do more of it," Kelsey says, "and people told me that I was good at it and maybe ought to make more of it, so I just started off using Instagram and facebook to post pictures of my cakes to see if I could sell them.

"I couldn't believe how popular they were and it wasn't long before I realised I could do this full-time and make my own business out of it."

In her mind, Kelsey developed a vision of the type of shop she would want.

"I dreamed of a shop with a little bay window," she said, "Maldon is such a cute, pretty town and I love it."

Having grown up in Australia and then moved back to England with her family around six years ago, then moving to Heybridge two years ago, Kelsey's fondness of the area meant that she felt it would be the right place to establish her new business. By chance, she saw the empty shop was available through a Facebook post.

"I saw right away that it was perfect, with the little window just as I'd imagined it. It was another thing that fell into place and it was something I realised was meant to be. The owners are lovely and they've been so helpful," Kelsey says.

"In a weird way, the pandemic gave me the freedom to do something I really wanted to do.

"I think it's amazing that people are taking local businesses on board again and realising their value. It's so exciting.

"I just want the shop to be a success and be well-received by the local community. I've had some lovely comments so far and the support really means a lot to me."

Kelsey smiles, "And of course, I need to thank my mum and dad because they've supported me every step of the way. They have supported me to find a new way through."

Bakes by Kelsey will take orders for cakes and treat boxes through the week – including wedding cakes and birthday cakes, as well as boxes of cakes that can be taken to barbecues and parties when such things happen again.

Then on Fridays and Saturdays, the shop will be open for walk-in customers to buy brownies, blondies and cup cakes with take-away coffee.

Kelsey hopes to open the shop for the first time at the end of May. For more details go to Instagram: @bakesbykelsey

Email: [email protected]

The Keep it Local campaign is being launched through Maldon District Council's Sense of Place initiative, with funding from the Magnox Decommissioning Fund.