The Tattingstone village shop project

For most villages, a shop is a vital lifeline and for some people, especially those without transport, it is an important connection with the world beyond their front door. It is a meeting place, communication centre and an important lynchpin of village life. Much of the appeal of our village rests on its sense of community. It is the reason many people have moved to Tattingstone and remain here. 

A questionnaire was distributed in June 2021 to all residents of Tattingstone and parents/guardians of the primary school children to determine whether there was a fundamental need for a village shop.

Download the full results of the feasibility survey here.

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?

The Phase 1 Feasibility has evidenced a strong level of demand - not just desire - for a Community shop in Tattingstone.

Viable spending levels and volunteer support have been indicated.

However, as with all new ventures, it would probably be prudent to pursue a trial site and temporary shop set up for a 6 to 12 month period to establish that indicated levels of demand and support truly exist.

Since 2000, over 300 new community shops have been established across the country – this is not a new concept and there is much more experience to draw on than the last time this was explored.

There appears to be sufficient support and drive in the current community to find a way to make it work.

HOW CAN YOU HELP NEXT?

Over the summer, we hope to move forward on three main fronts:

1. Developing a greater understanding of setting up a community shop

2. Exploring village location options to potentially site a community shop

3. Establishing a wider Steering Group to lead on key aspects such as marketing/comms, location, funding/finance, product/service sourcing, volunteering, legal etc

Thank you to those of you who have already offered to help in the development of a community shop – if you provided contact details we will be in touch. If anybody else would like to become more involved in the next phase or have any thoughts on location, please contact us.

In particular, if anyone owns some land or has a vacant outbuilding in Tattingstone and would be willing to allow a shop to be sited, please get in touch.

Do keep visiting this page as we will be using this platform to provide regular updates on progress.

Useful resources for more information

Plunkett Foundation

Case studies

How to set up a Community shop

Latest Update

The Phase 1 Feasibility study that was conducted earlier in the year evidenced a strong level of demand and active support - not just desire - for a village shop in Tattingstone.

On the back of that result, we have been in various consultations to locate a suitable site. We are very pleased to be able to announce that having recently met with St Mary’s Parochial Church Council (PCC) they are agreeable to exploring the shop concept further to investigate ways to locate a village shop within the church.

You may be aware that there are a growing number of examples of community shops within churches across the UK (https://grindlefordshop.co.uk for example) so we do have some working models to look at more closely.  

There is still a long way to go but we are now at a very exciting stage of the project. With a very clear focus for the next phase, we are now establishing a Steering Group and seek volunteers who have some time to help and experience in the following areas: legal, funding/finance, marketing, IT, administration, product/service sourcing and general project management.  

We have secured the support of the Plunkett Foundation to help us with some action planning activities and hope to hold a workshop sometime in October. For those of you who expressed an interest in getting involved, we will be in touch with you directly.

If you would like to get involved but haven’t yet made contact please get in touch.

Contact: Denise Hawes denise.hawes@hotmail.com or Andy Airey at andy@catalysis-advisory.com