The Ilsington Village Shop makes it onto the front page of the Hastoe Housing magazine:

Where Ilsington leads, the Archers follow.

Those of you who listen to the daily Radio 4 series “The Archers”, featuring the ups and downs of rural life, will know that the fictional village of Ambridge has a similar problem to the village of Ilsington, with its village shop threatened with closure.

In the programme, the shop is at the heart of the community and loals think it is worth fighting for. An action group is looking into how this can be done and whether they could form and run a community shop.

At Ilsington the campaign to build a new shop on the front of the village hall has moved a step closer with help from the Plunkett Foundation. Planning permission has been granted for the project. The plans were displayed in the village hall during a community market giving everyone a chance to look at the proposals. The market was set up to raise funds for the shop appeal. They need to raise £20,000 which will then be matched with, and supplemented by, further grants.

On the day of the market the hall was full of people. Locally produced beef, organic vegetables, honey, spices, jewellery, pretty boxes, cards and all sorts of lovely homemade food were on display.  Excited children joined in and Fern Norris had made cheery present tags for sale. It was a really successful community event. Hastoe residents Sue Norris and Nikki Garish worked hard to help make this happen. Nikki runs a pre-school group in the village hall every morning and said, “This is great news for the village. When the shop is built at the front of the hall it will become the hub of the community again. The village is really getting behind the project and it is bringing people together to raise the money needed.

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