History
A brief story on how the store came to fruition and what we hope for it moving forward.
we are now open daily……..and 100% volunteer run!
As many of you will know & remember, the idea of a new village shop was one that many of us in the village had hoped for, for quite some time so when the plans were drawn up to purchase the ‘Case is Altered’ public house and the potential opportunity to build a shop in the grounds of the pub, many local people dug deep into their pockets and bought shares in the community buyout with the thought of a community shop always in the back of their minds.
Early in 2015 Bob Feltwell decided that he would take the first step and start the ball rolling to raise money to have the shop built. As we all know in David Westley’s case (the chairman of our community owned pub!), it takes a special kind of person to take on a challenge and commitment as large as this, so that said, if you are willing to take the very first and most difficult step then you must also be prepared to take the helm and steer a course to what hopefully will become a successful reality.
Pennies from heaven
If only it was that easy! For well over 12 months, Bob has literally had to send hundreds of emails, hold meetings with dozens of potential supporters mostly by himself, well we do have a strong suspicion he had a considerable amount of help & support from his wife Christine. All of his time and hard work that very few people realise goes on, and must be done to have any possibility of raising sufficient funds to be able to even consider thinking about building contractors, planning, permits, services & the very long list goes on.
Partial funding secured
Thankfully all the hard work and effort paid off and sufficient funds were raised by Bob so that work on the shop could begin.
Of course Bob became the chairman of Bentley Stores, although I’m not quite sure he had much choice from the other members of the management group he’d brought together to help him, they had already made up their minds and wouldn’t have had it any other way, and now the hope is becoming a reality.
We still need your help
We are now open but can always welcome more volunteers to cover holidays in the shop or help with buying supplies. Thank you.
Moving forward
A final decision was made on the name of the shop (known as the trading name) and as we are already familiar with the name ‘Bentley Stores’ within the village, it made perfect sense to resurrect this.
The building work commenced with the ground breaking ceremony on Monday 15th February 2016 and was opened by The Lord Lieutenant on 14th July 2016.
Please check the Store News page for all of the latest details.
And so the story continues…