Steeped in history, you would imagine Burford would be an ideal place to sell antiques. In fact, one particular business allows no fewer than 18 dealers to do just that, offering a wide range of silverware, glassware, jewellery, prints, books, furniture, militaria and ceramics.

Antiques@the George is spread over three floors. But unlike many antiques shops which can seem gloomy and intimidating, this feels light, airy, warm and friendly.

Situated half way down the High Street in a former coaching inn, it lies opposite a tiny street, which used to be the main road to London.

Coaches would arrive through the archway next to the entrance. Famous visitors included Charles I, Charles II, his mistress Nell Gwyn and Samuel Pepys, whose graffiti can still be seen engraved into a windowpane on the first floor.

The centre is owned by Coral Oswald and Dr Amanda Palmer, which is unusual in this male-dominated sector.

“A lot of people comment about this antiques centre because it is clean, well-lit and the prices are displayed,” said Mrs Oswald.

“I think it is because it is run by two women who have more exacting standards. That’s what people say when they go out of the door. They compliment us on how well it’s presented,” she said.

They also spend money. In terms of numbers and value of sales, the centre has just had its busiest year.

“I really think it is down to not being over-the-top with prices and being approachable and friendly,” she said.

The whole of Burford is also doing well. It may be because Burford was voted the sixth-best place to live in Europe by Forbes magazine last April, generating lots of media coverage, but the economic downturn does not seem to have hit as hard.

“On the whole, people are still in work around here and because mortgage rates are down, they’ve got more money and they’re not going abroad so much this year,” Mrs Oswald said.

Although the dealers sell a few 18th century ceramics, antiques tend to be from the 19th century up to the 1930s.

Ten per cent of the stock can be more recent than that, if it is clearly labelled as such, but reproductions are not allowed. Prices rarely top £1,000.

Mrs Oswald came into the business when she had to clear a house after a death in the family.

“You begin to find out how you can dispose of all these items and that just got me interested,” she said.

She specialised in English blue and white ceramics, but most of her buyers were American and, after 9/11, they stopped coming, so she moved into jewellery and flower pots. She took over the business in 2001.

“I’d been a dealer in here since 1994, so I knew the building and I knew the business.”

Dr Palmer was also a dealer at the centre before she came in as partner in 2005. She has a long-standing interest in Victoriana and ceramics that began when her mother worked in a fine antique shop in the New Forest, and combines antiques with lecturing in sociology at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and being director of studies in human sciences at Harris Manchester College.

“What I particularly like about it is being your own boss; the independence. It’s the fun and the pleasure of using knowledge to buy things upon which a profit can sensibly be made,” she said.

Graham Millbank Ashton has been dealing through Antiques@The George for the past ten years.

He maily sells Edwardian and Victorian furniture; a bit of Georgian, and also has a cabinet of ceramics, as he likes to buy things at auction.

Mr Ashton ran a convenience store in Botley for several years and had been dabbling in antiques on the side.

At first he sold ceramics through an antiques shop in Woodstock, but when he started buying and restoring furniture, he moved to Antiques @ The George.

After running his own shop for several years, he did not want the responsibility of running another, so finds the antiques centre is an ideal compromise. He works there eight days a month.

“The rest of the time I’m in auctions, buying and doing restoring,” he said.

“It is busy all year round. I don’t think there’s a better place in the country than Burford.”

It is not just Forbes magazine then. The locals love it too.

Name: Antiques@TheGeorge Established: 1992

Owners: Coral Oswald and Dr Amanada Palmer

Number of staff: 18 self-employed in-house dealers

Contact: 01993 823319 Web: www.antiquesatthegeorge.com