We are delighted to have reached our first goal which was to buy No. 4 as our new community shop.

We are in the process of applying for funding to support us in renovating and fitting out the building for shop and Post Office purposes. This, no doubt, will be done in stages, depending on what funding is available, suitable and when.

If you would still like to buy shares in the shop or make a donation towards the renovations and fitting out then below are all the documents you need.

Shop Community Options page for further details.

Share Prospectus

Share application form for printing

Alternatively, enquiries can be made via the shop.

What is this Shop Share offer and Prospectus thing all about ?

A group of people from all walks of life have been running our community shop for us for a year now – a small profit has been made but the shop and Post Office needs to be put on a firm footing if it is to continue. It is felt that the time is right to offer everyone in the community a financial share in the shop and to be part of the future of this village shop and Post Office.

Everyone is invited to become involved in this. You do not have to be a volunteer or involved in any way in the running of the shop & Post Office, and you do not need to be a property owner or long term resident. Absolutely everyone is welcome.
You do not need to input large amounts of cash – although that would be welcomed! You can input a small amount if you wish to support your village shop. You can do this by purchasing a large or smaller number of ‘shares’ in the shop or by simply donating whatever you can afford on a one off basis if you’d like to support your community shop and Post Office.

The ‘Prospectus’ document which is now available on this village shop website on the Shop Community Options page, explains how this share offer will work and explains the hoped for future of your village shop & Post Office. There is also a form to print and complete if you would like to participate and support the shop and become part of this venture. Everyone is welcome.

This is a genuine community effort for the benefit of all the community and will benefit not just us but our children who will still be able to walk safely to the shop to spend their ‘pocket money’ and we can still all pay our bills and post our parcels. Remember, you do not have to be a volunteer or involved in any way in the shop or in running the shop. This is an open offer to everyone in the community and your pockets and wallets do not need to be large to be involved. You can be involved in quite a small financial way if you wish to donate to support your shop and Post Office.

General volunteer updates

May 2024 Update – volunteers

We promised to give you an update after the meeting to celebrate our first year.

Photo shows previous owners Roger & Anne Howe.

Who organises us all ?

The community shop is overseen by a Steering Committee. In their turn those people, depending on the role they hold, may need to co-opt people to support them and with sub teams. Those on the steering committe with specific roles are

Lance Moir – The Lead for this project provides all the financial skills and is part of the Post Office team.
Jerry Pattison – purchasing and stock organisation, oversees all stock purhasing and products, and how they are stored.
Julian Spicer – procedural documentation and much more.
Sheila Gibbs – Overall lead on shop floor. Pilots the shop floor volunteers, the rotas and much more. Supported by Helen Harding for communicatons.
Russ Sandy – Postmaster / perishable goods purchasing and much more. Russ is the go to person in the shop in the mornings when any of the volunteers has a question or a problem.
Lucy Bateman – handles and oversees the day to day accounting for the shop, administers the website, is part of the window dressing team and Post Office team.
Paula Clements – overall lead on marketing, publicity, press, advertising, leaflet, signage, poster design & promotions and ideas. Sub teams support Paula on Social Media and website administration.

Who else ?

Other volunteers offered or were co-opted to undertake specific roles. Most of these are ‘back of house’ and unseen but vital to the continued success of the shop.

John Wisdom leads the maintenance team. John knows the whole building quite well and had been supporting Roger for some years with maintenance tasks.
Mary Scott handles the monthly & weekly customer accounts
Lucy, Mary and Lance are all trained to operate and run the Post Office counter in Russ’s absence.
Helen Harding handles the volunteer email output and lists.
John Leech who owns and runs the Stogumber Village website is setting up the database for the new products and stock system. This is to be the basis and part and parcel of the new till system. This system will support
- Jerry in his purchasing and stock control role
- Sheila and Russ in their organisational front of house stock control roles.
Colin White pulls together some of the deep cleaning teams.
Marketing & publicity work is probably more work and more time consuming than most realise: Most of these sub team leaders hold down full time jobs. Owing to continuous input necessary to this role and the various elements involved, as the shop becomes more established and progresses it requires a larger team than just the original 1 person with 2 back up people.
- James Tillyer leads social media pages and Facebook with Kim Rew as back up. James also supports Social Media & website photography.
- Bettina Walker supports Social Media & website admin plus photos as above
- Kyra Bunker is to handle the Instagram page and will aim to engage a younger audience.
- Lucy Bateman now handles the website admin with James Tillyer and Bettina Walker as back up.
- Window dressing team of 6 overseen by Rebecca Pearman until her family grew ! The team manage themselves. The brief is to cleverly incorporate shop products into the themed window displays thus promoting products whilst allowing views of the interior of the shop to visitors from outside.

New Faces:

Several new faces will be seen amongst the ‘front of house’ volunteers in the shop as well as some new ones on the ‘back of house’ roles. Some are new residents whilst others have lived in the village for a number of years. We welcome them all and hope they will enjoy their role. It may be challenging at times but we trust it will be enjoyable and that they will meet new friends along the way.

Volunteering for the shop has brought together a number of people who had not met previously or had met but hardly knew each other. Many have made good social contacts and friendships. Other local businesses have benefited and we see groups of volunteers meeting in the White Horse Inn 2 doors away and at the Rocking Horse cafe near Stogumber Station too.

Our Volunteers and a working background:

Not everyone is aware that 50% of the committee members and those co-opted to support them in their various roles, work full time or very nearly full time. A good many of the shop front shift volunteers are similary employed elsewhere. However they are all prepared to offer their time and skills for this community venture outside or alongside their work committments.

In hindsight:

We should all maybe step back and think about this for a moment – for 364 days of the year, Roger and Anne Howe used to handle all of the above tasks and roles mainly on their own. They did have the support and help of Sharon in the Post Office and occasional assistance one day a week in the shop from residents such as Sandy H, Marilyn B and Chris G, then later from Jerry P and Paula N. Once again we should applaud Roger and Anne’s organisational abilities and smooth running of the shop for this village until their retirement in 2023.

News - Shop 1st Anniversary

See full photo in the text!

On 30th March 2023, just over one year ago, Roger and Anne Howe and volunteer Sharon officially retired from running the Stogumber shop and Post Office. Roger & Anne had kindly agreed to lease the premises to a group of local residents who had come together in January to discuss saving their village shop from closure.

It has to be said that at this stage very few of the volunteers had much experience of running or even working in a retail environment. However, at that original meeting it became apparent quite soon that a few were prepared to put their hand up to offer vital professional skills required to run the shop.

Amongst the skills sets required are: commercial purchasing acumen, financial and accounting skills, detailed procedural & documentation skills, people piloting and support, marketing, publicity & technical skills. Alongside this were other professional skills which would undoubtedly be required in future.

Going forwards, if the community wanted the business to continue to exist and run in a sustainable, professional and businesslike fashion, all of those professional skills would be required. Along with that we would need people with a multitude of skills in the shop itself to serve the customers and keep the shop itself and products it sells in good order and ship shape.

Under the financial guidance of Lance Moir, a Steering Committee was formed to oversee and organise the running of the shop and to delegate the various commercial, shop floor and back of house elements of operating such a business to those with the relevant professional and technical skills.

The photo below shows a small number of the main group who gathered on March 23rd to celebrate the successful first anniversary of Stogumber Community Village Shop Ltd.

The 2nd photo shows just some of volunteer group who originally gathered in early April 2023 in Stogumber Village Hall.