Leafield Village Stores
Services Offered
- Groceries
- Newspapers and magazines
- Local food and drink from Foxbury Farm, Wychwood Fine Foods and Hook Norton Brewery
- 20 different wines from the Oxford Wine Company
- Fresh breads and pastries
- Freshly baked pies, pasties and pastries
- Freshly made sandwiches
- Post Office service
- Dry cleaning
- Prescription collection service
Leafield Village Shop Celebrates Fifth Anniversary
Over 90 people attended the Village Shop birthday party in Leafield on 17 January 2008. Guests were welcomed with a glass of wine, then sampled sausages, specialty breads and pastries, cheeses, and beers and wines featured in the shop.
Focal point of the evening was the drawing of several raffle prizes, including a holiday for two to a villa in Greece. Other prizes ranged from cases of wine and beer to a shopping bag emblazoned with the Leafield Shop logo.
Many of the food prizes were donated by suppliers, including the Oxford Wine Company, Hook Norton Brewery, Wychwood Fine Foods and Foxbury Farm. The holiday prize was donated by Sunvil, a tour operator specializing in Greece.
Leafield is a village of about 800 residents. After the previous owners retired in 2002, the shop reopened as a community-run enterprise in January, 2003, with Conservative Party leader David Cameron cutting the ribbon.
Since then it has operated daily with a mix of paid and volunteer staff during a time when several nearby villages have lost their shops.
Grant helps village shop
A new community shop in Leafield has received a helping hand from the Co-op. The Leafield Community Shop Association recently took over the running of the village stores. The Oxford, Swindon & Gloucester Co-op has given a £500 grant to be used towards refurbishment. Resident Christopher Blount said: "This is the only retail outlet in Leafield and those without transport are very dependent on it." Co-op spokesman Karen Webb said: "We''re keen to help local people setting up new village stores."
Article from http://archive.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/2003/3/31/23774.html Monday 31st Mar 2003.
Leafield Post Office Reopens
The post office at Leafield was officially reopened in the Village Community Shop by David Cameron MP on June 24 2006. Local people gathered outside the shop to celebrate following a campaign to reinstate the post office in the village. The shop was festooned with balloons, villagers enjoyed free cake and lollipops and even one of the Post Office’s red ants came along to join in the fun!
When the post office in Leafield closed its doors in the autumn of 2004, it was feared that the village would lose this valuable amenity for ever. However, it was not the first time that the village had faced losing such a service – in 2003 the village shop also looked set to close and would have done so had it not been for the energy, enthusiasm and commitment of a number of villagers who decided to work together to run the village store on behalf of the community. Since then the shop has survived due to the hard work of both paid staff and volunteers and the support of its customers.
In order to reopen the post office it was necessary to find suitable premises and appoint a new subpostmaster. The Leafield Community Shop was an obvious choice as the premises could be adapted to accommodate the post office and a member of the shop committee agreed to take on the role of subpostmaster.
Funding for the re-establishment of the post office was received from Post Office Ltd, Leafield Parish Council, the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council and contributions from members of the community.
Article from the Village Shops Newsletter of Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, August 2006