Cottingham and Middleton Community Shop Ltd
Villagers in Cottingham and Middleton celebrated on Friday 2nd Sept 2011 the reopening of their village store thanks to 180 shareholders who invested more than £11,000 in the venture.
Cottingham and Middleton’s new Village Store and Café will be open seven days a week, run by four paid staff backed by a volunteer force of 25 villagers who are donating a few hours each week. The volunteers include several young people from the villages. The shop, which had been closed for about five years, now includes a café and community rooms, with free wifi internet access and computers for customers’ use.
The shop was today officially opened by local businessman Jeremy Sharman. Jeremy and Fiona Sharman and Steve and Jane Gaffney invested in buying the former village shop buildings and their extension and refurbishment. Jeremy said: “It is so rewarding to see a project like this coming together. I am overwhelmed by the support that this project has received from the community and churches in Cottingham and Middleton. It really shows how much our villages need a central gathering place.”
Dawn Watkins, chair of the management group running the store and café, said: “This is a happy day. The store and café are open for business as a new hub for village life and we are very excited for its future with the enthusiastic backing of so many villagers, volunteers and other supporters. “What is really wonderful is that it is so much more than the village shop that people have badly missed over recent years. The café and the facilities upstairs will be a great resource for people of all ages, including our younger and older villagers.”
The project has been backed by the 180-plus shareholders – individual villagers, parish councils, the village copyholder landowners, sports clubs and other community groups and local businesses – and by grant-giving bodies including North Northamptonshire Leader, Awards for All and the Plunkett Foundation. The grants are subsidising a significant part of the set up and running costs over the first three years.Originally set a target of at least 100 shareholders, the fundraising for a co-op style Industrial and Provident Society set up to run the facility exceeded all expectations.
One of the shareholders is Cottingham villager Dr Sue Aspinall, who is also volunteering in the store and café. Sue said: “The store is on my doorstep and I’ve missed it a lot. The enthusiasm behind it reopening is wonderful and if lots of people are helping in small ways then it can be a huge success. It has really brought out the best in people and generated a great community spirit.”
The store and café will be open from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday, Saturday from 8am to 4pm, and from 9am to 12.30pm on Sundays. The café will serve a wide range of food and drinks including locally made cakes and sandwiches, plus great coffee made from freshly ground beans. The store’s broad range includes groceries, chilled foods, household products and much more.