Ref. 12424/2GAZETTE & HEARLD: SHE may still be three years short of getting the key to the door, but that hasn't stopped 18-year-old Jess Purton becoming the youngest business owner in Chippenham.

The former Hardenhuish pupil, who lives in London Road, officially opened her new fashion store, Urban Connection, in The Causeway, on February 28 her 18th birthday. Her landlord is also her father David Purton.

Mr Purton bought the building last September and had been looking for a new tenant when Jess made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

"I had always been interested in fashion because my uncle runs a chain of clothes stores in Essex," said Jess.

"So when my dad bought the former antiques shop, I put a plan to him to turn it into a new clothes shop.

"Opening Urban Connection has been an exciting challenge," she added.

"Especially because I suffer from dyslexia and epilepsy and this affected how well I did at school.

"I also knew the dyslexia would make it very difficult for me to cope in a university environment, so I went to my dad and told him I wanted to use my uni money to go into business instead.

"And that's when I came up with the idea for Urban Connection."

Jess receives a great deal of support from her family and her shop manager, Jane Freegard, but everyone is quick to stress that Jess is very much the driving force behind Urban Connection.

"Jess put all her own money into this business and is a third shareholder and a director," said her father David. "I think it's amazing what she has done here in such a short time and she's doing great business."

Jess had a fixed idea of what she wanted her shop to be. She said: "Chippenham has a number of clothes shops, but I wanted the clothes to be affordable," she said. "I am interested in urban style clothes and wanted to offer a range that would appeal to all ages and sizes of women, but would be something different to what they could get anywhere else."