The Buckland Brewer Community Shop Limited is a society established to trade for the benefit of the community.

The society is based upon co-operative lines:

• membership is open open to everyone in the community 16 years or over
• members are the owners, can sit on the management committee and decide how the shop will be run
• each member has one vote
• shares are priced at £10 each

We will circulate further details shortly about membership, shares and how the society will run. If you have any questions, please email bb.shop@btinternet.com or call Pete on 07799 372 600 (day) or 01237 451570 (evenings and weekends).

Further reading: The Buckland Brewer Community Shop Limited rules (pdf 1.3 MB, opens in new window)

Welcombe community shop

Sally and I visited Welcombe, a small community owned and operated general store. The visit gave us a very good insight into the work required to set up a community venture, its operation and potential for success. I’ve also appended a report of the shop’s summer season from the local parish magazine.

Our sincere thanks to Alison Hutton, Ruth Funnell, Sheila Phillips and all who run the shop for their time and invaluable advice.

Welcombe is a small village on the border between Devon and Cornwall just off the A39. It is 6 miles from Kilkhampton, 12 miles from Bude and 6 miles from Hartland.

The village is fairly spread out on a couple of minor roads leading from the A39 to the coast. There is a pottery, a pub and the headquarters of the Yarner Trust in the village. There are a number of self-catering properties as well as b&bs scattered in Welcombe and surrounding hamlets.

The old shop and post closed suddenly in March 2005 when the owner/postmistress decided to retire.

The community immediately set up a committee to look at options for a replacement community owned and operated shop and post office.

Within 2 months the committee came forward with an option to site the shop in an annex to the village hall. This was agreed and work began on raising funds. The community also agreed to form a co-operative under Industrial and Provident Society rules, as recommended by the Plunkett Foundation.

The co-op raised about £1000 from selling £10 shares within the community. They decided upon £10 because that is again a common practice amongst community ventures.

Setting up the co-op was relatively straight forward, benefiting from advice from Plunkett. The rules require filing annual accounts to the Financial Services Authority instead of Companies’ House as other companies are required to do.

We met Ruth Funnell who was the original committee secretary (and briefly secretary/treasurer). Sheila Phillips, current chairman, popped in to buy goods and stayed to have a chat too.

The shop site was moved from a central location – the village hall – to a farm building 400 metres off the A39 because it was a cheaper option. The building is owned by a local farmer who lives opposite the shop site. There is also a camp site next door, owned by the farmer.

Funding came from a variety of grants including the National Lottery Awards for All and Devon Renaissance . There were also local donations of about £1000. There were no fundraising events.

The committee received lots of advice from ViRSA (now part of Plunkett) and the Community Council for Devon. They also got good support from their parish council.

Building work was carried out by the building owner. All the fittings and fixtures were installed by the shop. They had a purpose built counter, but all the shelving is secondhand, bought from the former shopkeeper. Fridges and the freezer are owned outright, all new. The original larger freezer broke down a year and was replaced for £800 (from the local Euronics shop). This was paid for through an anonymous donation.

Shop counter, fridges seen from the entrance

The shop has an electronic point of sale (EPOS) system running the cash register and stock control.

The shop opened in June 2006. It is open Monday to Saturday 9 am to 1 pm. They currently run entirely with about 11 or 12 volunteers each doing a 2 or 4 hour shift, once a week.

To manage for the first two years, the shop employed a part-time manager, funded by a further grant (Esmée Fairbairn). This helped get the shop up and running.

The shop is housed in part of an old farm building which was going to be converted to holiday lets. Overall it is about double the size of the BB Methodist chapel vestry, but some of the space is set aside for a large office, store and kitchen. The actual shop space is an L-shape with maximum dimensions of about 15 feet by 15 feet.

Counter, EPOS and post office counter

There is a large counter, built by a local carpenter. The counter also houses a small area for the outreach post office. Behind the counter is the alcohol, tobacco and medicines stock.

Looking from the back to bread, fruit and veg, fridges and dry goods

Facing the counter on one wall there are cards, books and other local products for sale as well as vegetables, bread and other bakery items. There is also an ice cream fridge against this wall.

Looking to the back: household goods, freezer and dry goods

Around the corner there are shelves all around, up to the ceiling, except for a single freezer holding meat and other products and two fridges holding dairy, meat and drinks. All the produce, except vegetables is shrink wrapped.

There is a very comprehensive array of household products, cleaning materials etc. Apparently these are good sellers because of the holiday trade.

The shop does not sell newspapers of magazines, but will sell Saturday papers on order only with a 10p markup. They buy these in from a shop in Kilkhampton. This is because a wholeseller requires that shops sell at least 50 papers a day, excluding the Western Morning News. The North Devon Journal and other local monthly magazine/newspapers are available.

The shop will do advanced orders for the many self-catering holiday homes in the area. This works very well. Orders can be placed online or by posting a form. The orders can include perishables, such as milk, cheese, fruit and vegetables.

Ruth estimated that 30% of the village use the shop and that some of the shareholders don’t use it. Some share buying was on a “guilt” basis by second home owners!

Shoppers can pay by card thought there is a £10 minimum. They offer cashback, subject to funds in the till!

There is a range of suppliers used by Welcombe shop. Ordering for each supplier is done by nominated individuals on the committee.

There is a good range of local products like cards and books.

Welcombe lost its post office a few years ago. It now gets an outreach post office service from Hartland. This comes on Mondays and Thursday for a couple of hours and is housed in the shop. The shop also sells stamps and is a parcel point.

From St Nectans parish magazine, October – November 2011…

Welcombe Community Shop

This summer, in spite of the indifferent weather, the shop has had its busiest season yet. This is not only because visitors have preferred to shop locally rather than use petrol going further afield, but because more of our local community have found that we have some jolly good buys) Our really wonderful and efficient volunteers have worked incredibly hard and would be so pleased if you could shop a little with us over the autumn and winter. If you have never tried us, call in to see what we have on offer, you may be pleasurably surprised.

All suggestions about what we could sell are considered, and at the moment we have some tempting reductions.

We are now stocking meat from Moore’s, the butcher in Kilkhampton, and will have their pasties on a Friday and Saturday – place an order to avoid disappointment as they sell fast.

Did you know that we have organic milk from Holsworthy and that the rest of our milk is from a Cornish dairy? We have a good range of Dunstable ice cream, and some excellent wines, most of which challenge supermarket prices. Lisa’s lovely cakes arrive every week and these can also be ordered. We have locally made jams and chutneys and some excellent biscuits.

We also stock a very good range of interesting greetings cards, some of which are also locally produced, at more reasonable prices than are to be found elsewhere.

So shop locally and find out what is happening in Welcombe at the same time.

Jill Edwards

A key part of the day was the chance to talk to the community about the shop plans including setting up a co-operative venture to manage the shop on a day-to-day basis.

We put together a number of display boards with information about community shop principles and ideas about how our shop will operate. There were also examples of how other Devon villages like Welcombe and Ashwater have pulled together to open their own successful shops.

The annual general meeting took place at midday. Pete talked about our progress in 2011 and plans for 2012. We circulated copies of the formal chairman’s report and treasurer’s report. Pete reported that the project had just got through the first stage of the Village SOS competition, which could meet the bulk of funds needed to open the shop.

The committee was re-elected. Pete will continue as chairman, Beverly takes over as secretary and Beverley is now treasurer.

We discussed the co-operative plans which had almost unanimous support. The consensus was that the committee should propose at what cost shares should go on sale.

The open day was a great opportunity to hear what everyone in the village thinks of the project.

We’ve had several more people express interest in volunteering. There is always room for more. Please contact Pete on 01237 451570 if you’d like to help out or if there’s any aspect of the project you’d like to discuss.

Many thanks to the Methodist church for hosting us and providing teas, coffee and refreshment on the day.

The is a big day for the community shop project.

The mini-market is moving from its usual day for this special event and there will be tea, coffee and cakes.

In addition, we will have displays explaining a bit more about our shop and examples of how other villages have developed their own community shops.

Did you know that there over 20 community shops in Devon with several more in planning stages?

This is also your chance to decide on how the shop will be run. We’ll be asking you to vote on the committee’s proposal to set up a co-operative that will issue £10 shares.

The committee hopes that offering everyone a stake in the shop makes this a truly community enterprise. But, we need to hear what you think.

We’ll be holding a short annual general meeting at around noon. This is a constitutional requirement. We aim to keep proceedings brief, but open the floor to you for your views.

If you’d like to volunteer to help run the shop or sit on the committee, please contact Pete on 451570 or talk to us at the Open Day.

We look forward to seeing you there!

• Coach and Horses, Buckland Brewer
• 7.30 pm
• Saturday 3 September
• £4 per person, teams of 6
• Raffle

You can sign up in the pub or phone Pete on 451570.

Alan will be our quizmaster and Ollie and Nicky promise supper during the break. Quiz nights in the Coach and Horses are always a great time so sign up now!

It's the Mini-market!

Despite heavy showers and wind, there was another good show for the Buckland Brewer mini-market today at the Methodist church.

Dawn and Lesley ran the market selling…

baked goodies...

fresh produce

soft fruits and salad

jams and preserves

books (for loan or purchase)

household and bath products

If you missed it this month, the market will be back again in July and every month through to October. Donations please to Dawn or Lesley. They hope to get more fresh produce next time as the harvest season gets into full swing.

The mini market sells toiletries, freshly made cakes, bread and rolls, as well as jams and preserves. Dawn would also like to carry fresh produce too. So, if you have any surplus from your garden or allotment, please contact Dawn or drop us a note here.

The first day of trading brought in over £60. Funds will go towards the community shop project.

The mini-market will operate the second Wednesday of every month through until October.

• 8 June
• 13 July
• 10 August
• 14 September
• 12 October

These dates tie in with the mobile library and the opening hours 11.30 am to 3.30 pm mean you can combine a visit with Babbs the butchers and the mobile post office.

If you like the mini-market, you’ll love the community shop!

Homemade cakes and garden produce (as available), books and much more, so please come along – drop in when you visit the butchers, library or Post Office van.

The Mini market will be open from 11.30am to 3.30pm. We look forward to seeing you.

Any contributions and donations would be very much appreciated. Please contact Dawn on 01237 451630

Time: 11.30am – 3.30pm

Dates: 11 May, 8 June, 13 July, 10 August, 14 September, 12 October

Thanks to Bloatertown and caller, Chris Jewell, plus all our guests for the evening: our Valentine’s barn dance was a great success.

Dancing the night away in the village hall

The village hall was packed to the rafters last night as over 60 enthusiastic dancers swung, circled and dosey-doed the night away.

Special mention must be made of our local walking club who helped drum up support from the Bideford folk group. Without their help there might have been some lonely musicians.

All profits will go into our pot to help bring a community shop to the village. Together with the Methodist church, we’re working on an exciting project benefiting the community. The project will shortly go forward for consideration for grant funding.

We hope that everyone enjoyed themselves last night and we look forward to seeing you at future events.

Check out more photos.

If you have any ideas for events or want to help us on the committee or with fund raising, leave a comment or email: pjmcclym@gmail.com