Roll of Honour
We must thank the committee of Blunsdon Community Shop for seeing our Facebook plea and getting in touch with a cabin for sale and for all their help and patience in getting it moved. Without them, we would not be here at all.
Since getting started with the project, we’ve been truly touched by how many local businesses and individuals have given time, skills and materials free of charge to help us. We’d like to thank everyone who has had a hand in transforming Whitley Stores from an ugly portacabin into the shop we have today. Hoping not to have forgotten anyone, we salute:
● AL King for roofing materials
● Amy Phillips for the internal doors
● Bath Granite and Marble for the glamorous counter
● Bevan Transport for their unflappable delivery
● Brewers of Trowbridge for the tasteful interior paint
● BSB Flooring for our smart new lino
● Bunting by Jen for decorating the deck for opening weekend for us
● Caroline and Mark Clifford for the kitchen worktops
● CAWS for the purchase of one of our benches, creating a place for villagers to stop and chat with one another
● Colin Butler at Groundscape Services Ltd and his able assistant Chris for their drainage works
● Corsham Building Plastics for the doors and window, which have transformed the poky cabin into a light, bright space to be
● Dan Pike for the Whitley Stores lettering across the front
● David and Monica Giddings for keeping our shop fittings in storage for us
● Eddie Day for his electrical oversight and terrible jokes
● Footfall Direct for the shop sign
● Huws Gray (Buildbase) Melksham for generous donations and discounts throughout the project, and to James for popping across in the early days to see how he could help
● Jay Taylor for making us surely the only portacabin in the west with a Belfast sink
● Jonathan from Simply Air Conditioning for ensuring we’re always at a comfortable temperature
● Kew Electrical for external lighting advice
● Liam Walker for installing the parapet and shed roof coverings
● Another Liam from City Electrical Factors for helping with electrical supplies
● Magic Grab Hire for helping with the site clearance
● Melksham Hub Café for donating the defibrillator
● Plumbstop Melksham for the loo
● The committee of the Reading Rooms for making it possible for us to continue our newspaper offering whilst we’ve been closed and for hosting the Warm Space on a Saturday morning
● The Timber Cooperative Ltd for the beautiful Welsh Larch that has clad the cabin and created the deck
● West Wiltshire Scouts Campsite at Jubilee Woods for allowing us to plunder their coppiced hazel for the balustrading
Huge thanks obviously and a special mention to:
● Jackie and Adrian from The Pear Tree for inviting us to set up shop in their car park and for being so welcoming
● Our frankly amazing maintenance crew of villagers: Paul, Billy, Ian, Graham, Kevin and Eddie who have put in so many hours of work that their gardens and families have been sorely neglected. Clare and Janet have even chipped in as a way to spend time with their absent husbands
● All our volunteers who have helped with planning, stocking, organising, setting up and are now back behind the counter making it happen day by day
What a true community effort it has been to get the shop open. Do support the shop to enable us to continue to support our community through offering volunteering opportunities and a place to meet, reducing car journeys made for small shopping needs and hopefully building profits that can be put back into future community projects.
Last, but by no means least, the whole Steering Group would like to thank our own families for supporting us in this crazy endeavour, keeping things running at home when we’ve been missing in action and understanding what it means to us to be able to bring the shop back to the village.
Nathan, Dom, Charlotte, Martin, Georgina, John and Alison
