Archive for the ‘Uncategorised’ Category

We are very proud to announce that Ilsington Community Shop has been shortlisted for a prestigious award from national charity the Plunkett Foundation. Even though we have only been open for 10 months, the shop is thriving thanks to its volunteer involvement and the contribution it makes to community life. The community’s efforts have now been recognised by the Plunkett Foundation who have shortlisted us for the Contribution to Community Life category in its national community shop awards, designed to recognise the very best examples in the sector. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Wednesday 26th June in Oxfordshire and we are keeping our finger’s crossed that we will win. To see the full shortlist you can visit http://www.plunkett.co.uk/newsandmedia/news-item.cfm/newsid/682 Says James Alcock, head of frontline at Plunkett Foundation: “Ilsington Community Shop represents a fantastic example of community enterprise and we wish them every success at the awards ceremony in June.” The Foundation said: "The awards were hotly contested, with over 70 applications being made from over 40 communities. The applications were extremely impressive, making shortlisting very difficult. Your shop team should therefore feel very proud of this achievement.” Well done everybody!

  Next time you get given a plastic bag, don't bin it, recycle it! At Ilsington Village Shop, we will happily re-use any of your unwanted carrier bags as long as they are in good condition.

Extract from @Home Newsletter: "There are over 300 community-owned shopes across the UK, thiriving in an economic climate that has seen many villages lose their shop or pub and delivering a vital service to their local communities.

The Community Shop Awards which are being run by rural development charity the Plunkett Foundation are the first of their kind and are designed to recognise best practise within the community shop sector. There are six categories and Hastoe is sponsoring the 'Contribution to Community Life' award which celebrates the extra impact community shops have on rural communities and the lives of residents.

Each award category has first prize of £500 and an invitation to the community shop award event in June 2013. The closing date for nominations is Friday 12th April 2013."

The snow caused a bit more than frozen fingers and toes this month. It fell with such speed that it caused a large tree branch to snap off and fall into the road right outside our shop! The branch blocked the whole road, narrowly missing a parked car. The only "tools" we keep in the shop are some cutlery and a ruler so we were pretty helpless to fix this problem! Luckily for us, the first person driving up the road was a local farmer, well equipped with a chainsaw in the back of his car and who was able to set to work clearing the scene. Thank you, Andrew, your help was very much appreciated. Please pop into the shop next time you are passing for a free cup of coffee!

We are very pleased to announce that a whopping £180 was raised from our Christmas Hamper Raffle.

All the proceeds were given to Rev David Harris to put towards the repair of our church clock.

Thank you to everyone who took part and congratulations to the lucky winners!

Please can you help us? We are supporting the Exeter Foodbank which gives emergency food to local people in crisis.

When you next visit us, would you consider adding another item to your shopping list to put in our foodbank? All donations must be non-perishable and in date and a list of suitable items – from UHT milk to tins of fruit – can be found on our noticeboard.

There is a box in the corner of the shop for all your donations. When the box is full we will take it to the collection point where it will be distributed to people who really need it.

For more information about Exeter Foodbank, please see their website: http://exeter.foodbank.org.uk/

Your generosity and support will help stop local people going hungry this Christmas.

The shop has been up and running for three months now and we all felt it was time to say a big THANK YOU to the lovely folk who volunteer at the shop and who are responsible for making it the success that it is. Alan kindly emptied out his barn (apologies to any sheep or alpaca who were suddenly homeless for a few hours) and soon it was full of smiling people. The evening was an opportunity for volunteers and their families to meet each other and to enjoy some delicious hot food cooked on the bbq (indoors, of course!) and some scrumptious desserts. There was even time for some impromptu skittle games too! It was a lovely evening with a wonderful atmosphere and it makes us very proud to say that we are members of this very special community.

Ilsington Village Shop has just been awarded a 5 star food hygiene rating from the Food Standards Agency.

Well done to Emma and all our volunteers for such high standards. First class!

Winston Oh is a celebrated watercolour artist who exhibits his work all over the world.

We are incredibly lucky that Winston's local connections have inspired him to create a calendar based entirely on our little corner of Dartmoor. With beautiful paintings of Haytor Vale. Smallacombe Rocks, Holwell Lawn, Widecombe, Buckland and Ilsington, this is more than just a calendar – it is a work of art!

All proceeds from the sale of this limited edition 2013 calendar will go to St. Michael's church in Ilsington and Ilsington Village Shop.

This is a unique opportunity to purchase a beautiful gift to keep or to share.

For more information on Winston and his work, please visit his website: http://www.winstonoh.com

Extract from the Mid Devon Advertiser Friday July 20 2012:

More than three years of fundraising paid off in Ilsington on Wednesday when villagers celebrated the opening of their new community shop. The original intention was only to provide an extension to the popular village hall, which is used by groups every day and was short on space. But when their shop went the way of so many others, residents decided to stretch themselves and add a store into the mix. That pushed the cost to £224,000 and a last minute hitch at Defra almost scuppered their chances.

Erica Williams, chairman of the community projects committee, said: “With the Village Hall Committee and the Shop Committee we’ve worked very hard together to make this happen. Defra granted us £179,000 but just as the award was about to be approved, cuts meant the decision had to be taken nationally, but thankfully we still got it.

Everyone has been working like Trojans to get the stock in and labelled and now it looks fantastic. We’re selling everything you’d want from a village shop at prices we think are fair, we’ve even got wine and local meat.

Because we are lucky enough to have had more than 50 people volunteer to work in the shop, together with the part time manager, we are hoping to open 8am to 7.30pm Monday to Saturday and half day on Sunday, too.

Even youngsters like my 15-year-old daughter Mikala have signed up and it’s funny because people who didn’t think they had missed the old shop now want to get involved because they realise the social role it played, too.

I can’t believe we’ve actually got here after so long, everyone’s really excited and it’s absolutely brilliant.”

Pupils from Ilsington Primary School sang to the crowds and the guest of honour, broadcaster Tony Beard, the Wag from Widecombe, performed the honours.