You will have noticed that the shop-in-a-box referred to below has now appeared on the grass beside the Village Hall car park, and the roofed ramp that was made for it in its previous home has been adapted and rebuilt.
The plan is to fit it out ready to receive the Village Stores between now and 4 January, when the stock will be transferred from the current shop ready to reopen, still trading as the Village Stores until the end of March.
As previously stated, Ian and Karen will be using the interim three months to train volunteers to take it over as a community shop from then on. If you can offer help with moving stock on 4 January, and/or being part of the team that runs the community shop, please let Ian and Karen know, or contact Marilyn Clarke (07760 7577947 clarkemarilyn@icloud.com).
The box is of course only a temporary solution. The long-term plan remains to move the shop into the Royal Oak. We are on course to achieve our full amount for buying the Oak, provided that we can reach our share offer total by the end of March, so if you have not yet invested, or could invest a bit more, or know somebody else who could, please help us with the final push towards a unique community venture and a brighter future for Stoke St Gregory. Happy Christmas from HOTV!