Oliver Lincoln is our new honorary treasurer. Ollie and his family came to Blockley from Hertfordshire last autumn and are staying in Northwick Park until they move into their new home on Greenway in August. Both the girls are doing well at Blockley school. Ollie is a chartered accountant and worked for a listed company until two years ago when he decided to take a career break to support his wife's business and be more involved with the girls' upbringing. We owe an enormous debt of thanks to Rob Willott, who has been a tower of strength and source of wisdom since the very early days of the community shop project. We are glad to say that Rob will continue as a member of the management committee after taking a short sabbatical while his successor settles in.

Members' barbecue

We are planning a Members’ Evening for all the family on Friday, Sept 10, 6-8 pm. There will be a barbecue with Old Farm meat and a veggie option and music by Bill Castle and his band. Tickets (£2) on sale at the shop soon. (First drink free)

Planning for the future

We are delighted that the shop’s lease on the Old Coach House has been extended to August 2013, but we naturally can’t assume that the building will be available indefinitely. At the moment the shop is breaking even and the café continues to contribute significantly to our modest income. This is in line with our original objective and enables us to be one of the few community-owned village shops in the country that is able to pay all its staff, rather than relying on volunteer labour. However, the management committee has come to the conclusion that we have to build our turnover so that we can invest in the future and secure our long-term viability. This may not be possible in the present building, as it is currently laid out. At the AGM in May it was announced that the management committee had been looking at every possible option to secure premises for our long-term future. These options include working with the existing premises, adapting other premises, or building a new, designed-for-purpose shop and café on a number of possible sites. All these options are complicated and we will be seeking input from the BCA members and the village when we know more…

Staff changes

We are very sorry to lose Nicola, one of our popular assistant managers, who received an offer she couldn’t refuse and has returned to teaching. Happily, Nicola will continue to help out now and then. Good luck Nick! Our new assistant manager will start work in August. As usual, our stalwart team of holiday helpers, Maisie and Annie, are back from uni and working hard at weekends.

News from the shelves

We have a new range of frozen ready meals using meat from Old Farm, Dorn, and cooked by Francis Green, who lives in Blockley. The first dishes include beef and sweet potato tagine and a beef and spinach balti. Francis will soon be extending his range so let us know if you have any requests. Fruit and veg sales have been going through the roof. As usual the local asparagus was very popular and we now have more seasonal favourites including strawberries, raspberries and cherries. Harry has been bringing us a weird and wonderful collection of lettuces from his allotment. Yvonne’s scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream have been much appreciated In the café. The menu features Ploughman’s lunch with Willersey cheeses and a delicious Patchwork chicken liver pate. New sandwich fillings include mozzarella, tomato and pesto. We also have a new shelving unit to display gifts, which was made by Jeff Harwood from Greenway. Chris says they were so well made that he didn’t want to paint them. We have finally received a new council waste bin which stands next to the phone box. By the way, does anyone know who filled the phone box with large pieces of stone? And why did they do it?

A country shop-keeper’s life ….

A newcomer to Blockley comes in quite often for a mobile phone top up. Her English is minimal and she can just about utter the words, 'ten pound top up please' in a very strong Spanish or Portuguese accent. Last week Libby was trying to find out what this hungry girl wanted to eat. She tried to mime sandwiches and baguettes but had more of a problem miming chicken tikka filling. Everybody laughed as she gave a rousing imitation of a chicken and then scrunched up her mouth to demonstrate the effects of a hot tikka sauce. Undaunted, Libby acted out the whole menu: from beef to tomato and tuna. Eventually she made a breakthrough miming cheese, which the customer consumed with relish. Thanks to Libby’s amazing talent and persistence we now have a new regular!

April 2010

The May Fair

Last minute preparations for this year's May Day celebration are well underway and we are expecting a huge turnout to join in the fun. The afternoon will begin at 2pm with the May King and Queen's Pageant, led by the Campden Morris men, which will start at St George's Hall and finish with the coronation and children's prize-giving ceremony in the Square. A highlight this year will be the first Blockley's Got Talent show, to be judged by a panel of celebrities including Simon Knowall, Amanda Hold'em and Piers Mortgage. The talent show will take place in St George's Hall at 5pm and everyone from toddlers to dodderers, is invited to enter. Forms are still available in the shop and have to be handed in by April 30th. Everyone is invited to watch – there is no entry fee! As usual, the Square will be a hive of activity throughout the afternoon, with Morris dancing, twelve stalls, loads of food and drink and a roundabout for the little ones.

The Blockley Cooperative Association AGM

The formal notice of the AGM and the accounts will be going out on April 29. The meeting will take place on May 16 in the Little Village Hall at 3pm. We are anxious to encourage new members to join the Management Committee, particularly younger people from all areas in the parish. If you would like to put yourself forward for nomination, please contact the BCA Secretary, James Hunt on 01386 701472 or at james.hunt@everymanlegal.com

Financial Update

In recent weeks, sales have been roughly on budget. The two snowbound weeks in January helped boost sales so that cumulatively they have exceeded budget for the year to date by 2.8 per cent. The signs are that we shall have to work hard to achieve budget for the rest of the year, but with members' support we hope to do so. The next loyalty bonus will be declared at the annual meeting on 16 May

News from the Shelves

Sales of our own label Blockley shop wines, which include Merlot, Chardonnay and port, all from Argentina, are going well, as is our own line of biscuits. Chris is negotiating with suppliers for a new range of Blockley shop products. Fruit and veg are doing well and local asparagus will be in soon. The ice creams are back in the fridges in the entrance and Calippo shots (little balls of flavoured ice) are the flavour of the month. The café has been doing well thanks to the sunny weather and a new range of sandwiches and salads will be on sale from next week. We are also delighted to announce that all our cakes are now made by June, the celebrated pastry chef at the Horse and Groom, Bourton on the Hill. Our range of affordable gifts has been expanded and now includes beadwork and soft toys from Rwanda, which have been brought home by Chris who lives in Park Road. Funds raised go to a charity in Kigali which helps ex-prostitutes out of poverty. Details: www.kinambaproject.org.uk Following our recent break-in some very heavy-duty iron bars have been fitted to all the doors.

A Country Shop-keeper's Life ….

Two amorous mallards walked into the shop on Tuesday and took refuge behind the vegetable chiller. The female eventually retreated to a bottle of Domestos and refused to budge until she was charmed by the staff using stale croissants.

The Lottery

Sales of Lottery tickets have risen to £500 per week but we will still have to increase this to £1000 if Camelot is to guarantee continuity of service after one year.

50s Ball

Following the huge success of the 40s ball, BAD company is organising a second ball, this time with a 1950s theme. The ball will take place on June 12 and jive classes are being arranged so that everyone can sharpen up their skills in good time. All proceeds will go to the upgrade fund for St George's Hall. Details: Jenny Bruce: jenny@jennybruce.co.uk or 01386 701072. Tickets £25, to include first drink and supper - cooked again by Dan Scobie - will be available from the shop by weekend of 24/25th. April.

February 3 2010

Nicola, Chris, Jean and Jenny went to the House of Lords for the Countryside Alliance Awards finals. We won the award for Best Village Shop in our region and have now been nominated for the Best Small Shop of 2010 competition run by the All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group.

January-February 2010

Rob Willott reports that the New Year started well. With the benefit of two snow-bound weeks and a lot of work by the shop staff, we achieved sales of £38,753 for the month (excluding PayPoint and Lottery revenues) compared with a budget of £31,680. The week commencing 4 January achieved the highest sales figure since the shop was opened, (£12,671 excluding PayPoint and Lottery). Sales for 2009 were 17.5 per cent ahead of budget. Preliminary draft figures suggest that our income for the year will have exceeded our outgoings by slightly more than the budgeted amount of £5,706, helped by the belated receipt of a Dawson newspaper refund of £2,851, which really related to 2008. However, it looks as though it will be much harder to exceed our budget in 2010 despite the excellent start to the year that was boosted by the heavy snowfalls.

Icy Weather Boosts Sales

The shop staff rose to the challenge once again in January when heavy snow and treacherously icy conditions made things difficult for two weeks.

We were grateful to all the volunteers, particularly Mark Penfold, Phil Hill and Martin Newitt, who went to great lengths to ensure that stocks of fresh products and newspapers were topped up. Storage room is limited so it is necessary to have daily deliveries of many items and some mornings there were 84 telephone calls from customers enquiring about availability. If anyone would like to volunteer to man the phone next time there’s a crisis, please phone Nicola at the shop.

Chris also delivered groceries to vulnerable people who couldn’t venture out, so feel free to ask for help if you are in difficulty.

The café was very popular as a retreat and meeting-place where people could catch up and swap experiences over a hot drink. Fancy hot chocolate with all the trimmings was the hit of the month.

Shop Lease Extended

We are happy to confirm that the shop lease has been extended by two years to August 31, 2013.

New Honorary Treasurer Required

As was always envisaged Rob plans to stand down as treasurer at the next AGM, having taken us through the daunting period of fund-raising and our first two years of operation. We are looking for someone to take over his role (which does not include the day-to-day book keeping which is handled very efficiently by Cal Scobie). For more details, please contact Rob Willott on 700677 or Margaret Bryan on 700500.

News From the Shelves

At Christmas we launched our own label Blockley shop wines, which include Merlot, Chardonnay and port, all from Argentina. Sales are going well and people love the design as well as the taste. They make good presents – the red wine sold out at Christmas – so why not try a glass when you next have a bite of lunch in the café?

New products include an extended range of arborio and basmati rice and four flavours of Dorset cereal. If you would like to order less popular fruit and veg, such as ginger root, squashes, celeriac, fennel bulbs etc we can obtain them for the following day (if you let us know by 4pm).

A new range of wrapping paper, tissue paper, greetings cards for kids and gifts is on its way following a visit the Spring Fair in Birmingham earlier this month

The Lottery

Sales of Lottery tickets are currently running at £350 per week but we will have to increase this to £1000 if Camelot is to guarantee continuity of service after one year.

PO services

The Post Office has been experiencing widespread IT connection problems (not just Blockley!!) but we have been assured that these have now been sorted out. Please note that the opening hours may be cut if we don’t use the post office as much as possible.

December 2009 - Now we’re off to the House of Lords

Blockley Village Shop and Café has been chosen as Wessex regional winners in the 2009 Countryside Alliance Awards for the Best Village Shop. The next step will be the national final, to be held at the House of Lords on February 3, 2010.

The Countryside Alliance Awards, now in their fifth year, aim to celebrate the characters, skills, traditions and enterprise of the countryside through the people who work so hard to make it tick. This year’s Awards attracted a record 2,500 nominations from the public.

Regional finalists across four categories include village shops and Post Offices, butchers, breweries, pubs, cheese makers, feed merchants, smokeries, tea rooms, hotels, ice-cream makers, farm shops and an oysterage.

The national finalists were selected on the basis of a detailed questionnaire and secret visits by the judges.

Manager, Chris Grimes, said: ‘This is a tribute to the whole team, but we couldn’t have won without the support of our loyal members.’

November 2009 News

Lots of customers will be pleased to hear that after long drawn-out negotiations and various technical hitches, the Lottery machines have finally arrived at the shop. They are now installed at the till and Camelot personnel are scheduled to visit us in last week of November to train the staff how to use them. The shop will be paid a small commission on lottery tickets and scratch-cards. You may be surprised to learn that we had to deposit £5000 with Camelot in order to secure this service. This will be returned in two years time.

Newsletter History

General News History

22 April 2009

May Day Celebrations

Following the success of last year¹s May Day opening and the Christmas celebrations, Blockley Community Shop has formed an Events Committee to organise and/or support occasional village events taking place in Post Office Square.

The Events Committee is coordinating the traditional May Day celebrations again in conjunction with other local organisations. Given the amazing support from the village last year we aim to make it even bigger and better with a May Day King & Queen fancy dress parade for the under 11s, Maypole Dancing, Morris Men, fairground rides, stalls, hot food and lots of beer.

Our local choirs and the Brass Band are being invited to play for us during the afternoon and there will be a concert in the early evening featuring local talent.

If you would like to be involved or know of some local talent please contact Chris Jury on 07850 651803 or chris.jury@btinternet.com

If you are a community organisation or local trader and would like a stall at the May Day fair contact Sheila Weir on 01386 700322 or email her at sheilakmcw@hotmail.com

16th November 2008

SHOP RE-OPENS FOLLOWING TREE FALL

The large tree that fell on the dovecot adjacent to the shop has now been cut down and the shop and nursery re-opened on Friday 14th.

The crane and cherry picker was in use from 8-4pm removing the branches from the dovecote, and the road was closed to traffic.

A BOTTLE OF BUBBLY FOR 500TH MEMBER

On Sunday, October 12 the community shop manager Chris Grimes presented a bottle of champagne to Martha Vipond - who meant to fill in her application form to join the co-operative months ago. Martha, her husband Edward and 9-year old son Archie moved to Blockley from Lincolnshire last year. ‘We love the shop and café –it has been a great place for us to meet new people,’ she said. ‘It’s a real focal point for the village.’

17th May 2008

GRAND OPENING OF THE BLOCKLEY VILLAGE SHOP

The grand opening of the Blockley Village Shop and Café was a great success, thanks to the band of helpers who moved tables and chairs, directed traffic, cooked hot dogs and generally ensured that things went smoothly.

The Square was packed when the fete opened at 1pm and there were 20 stalls representing the main Blockley clubs and charities as well as a beer tent and barbecue. The Campden Morris Dancers were on very good form as they performed for the May Queen and her attendants and the concert on Churchill Close was much appreciated by those sitting on the grass, (particularly the ones who had remembered a plastic backed rug.)

Dudley Sutton crowned the May Queen (Deana Cross with attendants Molly Bentham, Holly Blythe and Callum Sollis) and opened the shop with a flourish. He later took part in the concert with a virtuoso performance on the guitar and harmonica as well as singing and reciting his own material. Others taking part included the Blockley Ladies’ Choir, the Blockley Blokes’ Choir, Ann Walters and Richard Stephens and the Kamikaze Union.

The shop and café are proving very popular. New product ranges are being introduced as quickly as they can be entered on to the stock control programme. There are now over 500 items on the shelves and food and drink is now available to take away as well to be eaten on the premises, from 8am onwards. The shop offers daily deliveries of local veg, meat from Old Farm, Dorn, and freshly-baked bread and pastries as well as a range of basics. Magazines are now on sale and a suggestion box is available for requests and ideas. The PayPoint facility is another innovation. This means that up to 450 types of bills may be paid directly from the shop – from utility bills to congestion charge and world-wide money transfers.