There’s no other month that cries holidays and warm sunny days like
August but unfortunately this August has been very disappointing weather
wise, lets hope we have an “Indian Summer”.
Once again we have had a very busy time in the shop and café
welcoming and serving lots of customers who have travelled from further
afield. I had the pleasure to chat to one lady from America who told me her
grandmother grew up in Bledington.
New fruits and vegetables are arriving in the next few days and weeks.
Delicious juicy figs are perfect on their own or served with blue cheese,
walnuts in a green salad. Luscious British plums which go well with duck or
goat’s cheese, and not forgetting corn on the cob, griddled on the BBQ with
lots and lots of melted butter and black pepper. September is just days
away so why not buy cooking apples to go with the arrival of blackberries,
arriving on a hedgerow very soon.
I am sure you will have noticed on your visit to the shop one of our garden planters
is bursting with a variety of English herbs. Rosemary, parsley, mint, thyme and chives. Please
do help yourself these are for everyone to
enjoy whether in a salad, a casserole or even in a drink!!
We would like to send our congratulations to two of our young
volunteers. Angus Sherringham who achieved a double merit in business
studies and a distinction in computing. Plus Daniel Logue, who received his
A-level results, achieving four A* grades.
Everyone at Bledington Shop would like to take this opportunity to thank
them for all their hard work volunteering. We wish them all the success in
their next steps. If you know a young person who would like to volunteer in
the shop please do get in touch.

British Summertime has finally arrived, we have already had some amazingly hot summer days. Thankfully in the shop we have air conditioning which is now being generated by our newly installed solar panels, making the shop even more green.

Don’t forget our fruit and vegetables are delivered to us daily from Drinkwaters. It is not packaged in lots of plastic, you can buy what you need, plus it reduces food waste which is very important to us all.

If this amazing weather continues I am sure you might be considering going on a picnic. We have a great selection of yummy treats to take with you from pork pies, scotch eggs and tasty quiches all supplied to us from a local company the “Outdoor Pig Company”. Don’t forget a chilled bottle of Rose. If you need anything else to enhance your picnic just come in and ask, we are always happy to help.

Summertime brings to us lots of yummy fresh fruits, English cherries, apricots and not forgetting strawberries served with lashings of cream all available in the shop.

You may not know we have a fish van that visits the shop every week. Paul has changed his weekly visit to Wednesday from 2.00 – 3.00pm. He has the finest quality fish direct from the Grimsby docks. Why not come and have a look and see what he has available.

I am sure you will all agree the exterior of the shop is looking stunning with the flower planters, one containing summer bedding plants and the other with fresh summer herbs. It has also been enhanced by five hanging baskets. A huge thank you to Alan Jarvis who very generously planted and donated these.

Don’t forget we are holding our

Annual General Meeting on
Wednesday 12 July 6.30pm at the
Village Hall. This will be an opportunity for you all to hear what has been happening this past year and to ask any questions.

Many thanks to those of you who volunteer in the shop and welcome to Jenny and Rosalba who have recently started volunteering. I know that helping in the shop is a great way of giving something back to the village and the local community. If you are interested in volunteering please do pop into the shop and have a chat. Its lots of fun.

I am sure you will agree watching the Coronation of our new King, King Charles III was a magnificent sight and something I will not forget in a very long time. Those of you that visited the shop the week before the Coronation will have been asked to donate a product to our foodbank collection on behalf of the North Cotswolds Foodbank. On behalf of the Trustees of the foodbank we would like to say thank-you for your very generous donations, weighing in at an amazing 54kg. A record amount from Bledington Shop.

Your generous donations also entered you into our “Right Royal Raffle”. Many congratulations to those of you that were successful in winning a Royal Prize.

There are so many beautiful and delicious new fruits and vegetables at their best right now from early salad leaves, such as rocket and lambs lettuce to juicy English strawberries. All available fresh into the shop every day.

As you all know back in March we won the Countryside Alliance Rural Oscars Award 2023 for Best Village Shop in the South West of England. This week I went with Louise Jackson to the House of Lords to attend the Grand Final. Unfortunately we did not win, but we were in the top 3 businesses
out of 15,000 nominated across England, Wales and Scotland which is an amazing achievement. Without our great team of staff and volunteers, incredible customers this would not have been possible. So thank you.

Coming up in June we have many events happening in the village which we are very proud to be supporting. At the beginning of June is the Bledington Music Festival 6 to 8 June. Tickets are still available at the shop. (Cash or cheque only). Plus we have the Bledington Summer Fête on Saturday 10 June.

In the shop we will have lots of cards and presents for Fathers Day Sunday 18 June so please pop into the shop and pick up something special for your father.

Don’t forget, if you are new to the village, or surrounding area volunteering in the shop is the perfect way to meet new friends, introduce yourself to your neighbours plus you are giving something back to our community. For more information about volunteering please do pop in and
ask. I look forward to seeing you all very soon.

April has brought us many showers, but as the proverb says, let’s hope it brings lots of May flowers. We have enjoyed a very busy month in both the shop and café with lots of visitors to the village during the Easter period. Our award winning bread supplier, Marks Cotswold Bakery, supplied us with lots of delicious hot cross buns and the Cotswold Chocolate Company supplied the most delicious easter eggs in various shapes and sizes, from chicks to bunnies.

We have lots of fun events coming up in the weeks ahead, with the first ever Bledington Community Shop and Café dog competition! As you know we are dog friendly and love to see our canine friends coming in with their well-behaved owners! If you own a dog, please bring a photograph to the shop and we will display your furry friend for all our customers to enjoy. We are asking pupils of Bledington Primary School, who live in Bledington and surrounding villages, to come and visit the shop and vote for their favourite dog. The winning dog will enjoy something tasty!

To celebrate his Majesty the King’s Coronation we are holding a fun “Right Royal Raffle”, with all prizes being royalty related. To enter simply donate a product to the North Cotswold foodbank box at the shop or pop a few pennies in the collection tin. Good luck.

We have lots of new goodies coming in for the Coronation from Coronation Chicken crisps to King Charles sweets, so please pop in and have a look.

Finally, Louise Jackson, one of our super volunteers, and I, will be off to the House of Lords on the 17May 2023 to attend the finals of the Countryside Alliance Rural Oscars awards. Please keep everything crossed and hope that we win the Best Village Shop in the whole of the United Kingdom. We look forward to seeing you soon.

March certainly arrived like a lion, we have had some very cold and snowy days. Lets hope it goes out like a lamb and that the longer days and the gorgeous Spring bulbs means that Spring is finally here. Have you seen the Spring bulbs and flowers that we have planted up just outside the entrance to the shop?

We have been celebrating a few national food weeks, with “Real Bread Week” championing our amazing local supplier Marks Cotswold Bakery a 5 star award winning bread maker. We then had national “Pie Week” again promoting another local supplier the Outdoor Pig Company who make all our delicious pork pies, quiches and traditional pasties.

Last Sunday was Mothers Day so a big thank you to all our amazing mums, mothers, grannies and grandmothers who live in our village. I hope you were able to spend some time and say thank you for everything that they do for you. I know if it wasn’t for my amazing Mother I would not be the person I am today, so thank you Mum.

We will soon be celebrating Easter. We have an amazing choice of cards, gifts and of course chocolate so please pop in and pick up some chocolatey treats.

Finally I am proud and delighted that the very talented Amy Jackson has personally designed for us our very own Bledington Tea Towel. As you may know Amy designed the labels for our Old Orchard Bledington Gin and Sloe Gin. She also designs the Bledington Christmas card for us. The tea towel which features the ducks which live on the village green comes in 3 colours, cream, mustard or sage green. So why not pop into the shop and purchase your very own Bledington Tea Towel. Many thanks Amy for all your hard work and attention to detail; they look incredible.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Bledington Community Shop & Café. We celebrated our 3rd birthday on Saturday 12 November. It was a fun day with lots of you commenting how lucky we are to have such an amazing community shop and café. All the children received a birthday balloon, and we had Graham White, a local gardener, signing his new book “Notes from a Kingham
Gardener”

Many of you came in and helped celebrate with us by entering the free raffle. Congratulations to David Bowditch, Lizzie Aldridge, Rusty Gooding and many other villagers who won one of our many excellent prizes which were kindly donated by our local suppliers. Thank you.

We are delighted to announce a new supplier. “The Cotswold Chocolate Company” based in Stow-on-the-Wold who are artisan chocolatiers, handmaking delicious mouth- watering delights, perfect as a treat or a gift. We have many flavours fit for all palates!

With Christmas only four weeks away the shop will be transformed into Santa’s grotto from Wednesday 30 November. We will have everything you need from Christmas cards, wrapping paper and bottle bags to handmade aprons, ladies wash bags and of course all the wines, beers, and delicacies you can eat. Our Christmas food order form is available in the shop.

Another date for your diary is Saturday 10 December. We will be highlighting and promoting our amazing local suppliers with a free tasting event. So please come along and try a nibble from Marks Bakery, The Cotswold Chocolate Company and many more. Plus of course our amazing Old Orchard Sloe Gin!

Finally, a big thank you on behalf of the North Cotswold Foodbank. Every week they come along and empty the box that we have located by our entrance. Every week it is overflowing and they have been blown away by the generosity of all our customers. Thank you for all your donations and helping those who are struggling during this very difficult time. Every little bit helps.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Autumn has arrived and our countryside is ablaze with colour, the trees are slowing shedding their leaves and the nights are slowly drawing in. October in the shop has seen the arrival of lots of new and very tempting products. In our frozen section we have some delicious new fishcakes from salmon, lemon and dill to smoked haddock. We have some very early brussels sprouts and kale in, easy to cook and very tasty with a warming and hearty stew.

I am delighted to announce we have a new local homemade cake supplier, Holli Thomas, who owns Little Sprinkles Cakes. We are delighted to serve her mouth-watering cakes in our caf̩ with lots of amazing choices to enjoy, from Red Velvet to a Vegan Chocolate Cake Рwhich one will you try! Any slice would be a perfect accompaniment with a freshly ground Stow Coffee or hot chocolate served with cream and marshmallows.

Following the generosity of our customers over the last few months our Chairman Graeme handed over a cheque to Wendy Scott, joint editor of Bledington News to help towards the costs.

All of us at Bledington Shop appreciate what a vital role Bledington News magazine plays in the community, keeping us all up to date with the goings on within our community.

Thank you, Sinclair and Wendy, for all your hard work.