SOLVED Children's fantasy series. Shop in a tree [s]

[[deleted user]]

I'm pretty sure this was a trilogy of books although I can only remember details from the first book. Basically the story in the first book is set in an enchanted forest with talking animals, the main character is a young girl who lives in a tree with an old woman (her grandmother? an aunt?) and they run a shop out of their tree selling magic charms and spells etc, to the animals. They experience competition when a boy turns up with his grandfather (I think) and they set up shop in an old car (I'm pretty certain that they name it 'The Shop in the Ford'). I want to say that the boy's name is Sam, and he and the old man turn out to be cruel as they are bad to the animals and keep selling them fake stuff. I also remember that there is a bear who escaped from the circus where he was treated very badly.

Thanks for reading, and I hope someone can help!

[Scott]

It reminds me of the Green Sky Trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Snyder but there wouldn't have been a car in it.

[M]

It makes me think of Beverley Nichols' books, which began with The tree that sat down, where gullible animals fall prey to the shenanigans of Sam and Miss Smith (an evil witch) who looks very beautiful. They sell them horrible items. The third one is The stream that stood still.

[[deleted user]]

Yes it is the Beverley Nichols series! Thank you very much, M!

[Sue]

The second one is The Stream That Stood Still. The third one is The Mountain Of Magic.

[bookel]

And there's a fourth book

[bookel]

http://www.librarything.com/series/Ma...
The wickedest witch in the world
is book 4.
The paperback republished editions are abridged from the couple I've read so far, states on the title page, but they read as complete stories and would not have known they were abridged.