Nenthead Community Shop
Nenthead Community Shop opened on 3rd December 2007. The old Shop and Post Office closed at the end of March when the owners retired and since then residents have had to make a 10 mile round trip to buy their groceries. The new Shop is based in the Nenthead Reading Room which belongs to the Over 60s Club.
Nenthead resident and committee member Maggie Tarbit explained how much the community had missed the shop over the summer. ‘In a rural community like Nenthead a shop is more than just a place to buy groceries. It’s where you find out the news and especially for people without transport, it’s the main place where you meet others and can have a chat. We are delighted that we’ve had the chance to lease the Reading Room which has a long history of community use and gives us the space to have a shop and a small meeting area.’
Angela Green, the Company secretary, said how pleased they have been with the amount of support they have received. “When it became obvious that we would lose the old shop we decided that the only thing to do was to run one ourselves. It meant a lot of work for everyone involved and local people have been incredibly helpful. We set up a community business in January and sold shares to raise capital. It also showed potential funders that we had community support for the project.
Funding was received from the Cumbria County Council regeneration fund, CRISP, The Plunkett Foundation, ViRSA, Alston Moor Community Chest, Eden District Council, Business with Altitude and Voluntary Action Cumbria and a loan from the Co-operative Finance Group. Local people have helped to decorate, erect shelves and fit out the shop. Most importantly they are using the shop and making suggestions about what they’d like to buy. We are employing six part-time staff who keep the shop open from 8.00 in the morning. Now the post office is open we need people to use it if we are going to be able to keep a post office in the village.”
The Official Opening was performed by May Richardson, Nenthead’s oldest resident. Angela Green added that ‘it was an opportunity to thank everyone who helped us get to this stage and celebrate a very positive achievement of our community.’
For further information contact: Angela Green 01434 382121 or Sally Orrell 01434 382239