Page 38 - Bere Regis November 2023

November 2023 November 2023

SPOTLIGHT ON …….. Jenny: After the renovations, we needed to do something to encourage people
back to using the village hall. The shop volunteers noticed that customers using
the shop would stand about chatting with each other. So, Andrea Smith, Cindy
….. the Briantspuddle Read and I thought we would start to offer tea and coffee on Saturday mornings,
Community Group and 10.00 to 12.00, so people can stop and chat with somewhere to sit. We decided
to offer real coffee (not instant!), bacon rolls and homemade cakes. We have to
Saturday Coffee Shop pay for ingredients and the rent for the hall but we don’t need to make a profit.
Janey Gordon So it’s £1 for a drink, £1 for cake and £1.50 for a bacon roll. We opened on 13 April
2013.
In the parishes of Bere Regis and
Affpuddle with Turnerspuddle, and the Angie: The Coffee Shop has become really popular. We have lots of regulars from
villages these parishes include, there are the village but also from further afield and other local villages. It’s open to
a number of people who give their time and energies to support and enrich the everyone. Sometimes we have a choir rehearsing in the main hall, (it has a lovely
local communities and individuals who live here. They contribute freely to the acoustic) and they come through for coffee in their break.
villages either as individuals or as groups and teams. Jenny: We sometimes get groups of cyclists coming through the village too. They
know to give us a call first, “Just to warn you, we’ve got a group of twelve cyclists
The parish magazine is running a short series to “Spotlight” some of these, and this
month we are featuring the Briantspuddle Community Group, which is based in coming through Briantspuddle at about 10.30 on Saturday. Can we say we’ll be
the Briantspuddle Village Hall. The group is organised by a small committee of there for coffee and a bacon roll each please?”
Angie Talbot, the Chair, along with Jenny Beedle, Andrea Smith and Jenny Angie: On the second Saturday in the month, I run the Book-Let alongside the
Lightfoot. Along with around ten other volunteer helpers, they are responsible for Coffee Shop. This has been going since 2008. We have two library trollies and for
the very popular weekly Saturday morning Coffee Shop, as well as the monthly 30 pence people can ‘rent’ a book and bring it back the following month. All the
‘Let’s Lunch’ on the fourth Thursday of the month and the ‘Book-Let’ on the books are donated to us. They are all in good condition and ‘good reads’,
second Saturday morning of each month. I spoke to Angie and Jenny in the whodunnits, romances, thrillers, biographies, autobiographies and so on. We keep
Briantspuddle Village Hall. them for about a year and then pass them on to charity shops. So, there is always

Janey: This is an exceptionally smart village hall and with excellent facilities. What a good selection.
exactly do you have here? Jenny: Later in 2013, when the Coffee Shop had already started, we were
Angie: The main hall was originally a barn that was converted to a village hall in approached by the Partnership for Older People Programme, known as POPP.
the 1920s with a kitchen and outbuildings. When the Bladen Estate was sold in the They were running a scheme to help elderly people to get out and socialise. They
1950s, the parish council bought the hall on behalf of the community and in 1983 wanted to set up lunch clubs and asked if we would be interested. They were
a charitable trust was set up to manage and maintain the hall. offering a grant of £2,000 to help with equipment. So we visited one already
running in Milton Abbas to see how it worked and in October 2013 ran our first
Jenny: On the same site we also have the village shop and Post Office, and the Let’s Lunch, just to see if there was any interest and only offering soup and a
Bladen Social Club which are separate not for profit organisations that are run by sweet. It was very popular and has been on the fourth Thursday of the month ever
their own volunteer groups. since. We stopped for COVID but were up and running again straight afterwards.
Janey: You have very good facilities! The kitchen is amazing! It’s got two huge Angie: Let’s Lunch is first and foremost for the parishioners of Affpuddle with
sinks, a range cooker and a commercial dishwasher. And, it is squeaky clean! Turnerspuddle and who are over fifty-five. But if someone has a guest staying or
someone who has moved away comes back to visit, they are welcome. We
Angie: In 2011 to 2012, the older building additions were taken down and a large charge £6 for a main course, dessert, cheeseboard and tea or coffee. People do
modern kitchen, toilets, storerooms and meeting area were built on to the hall. need to book as places are limited.
The users were asked what kind of kitchen we needed and we said, “A large
one!” We wanted to be able to welcome volunteers and also to be able to cater Janey: How do you manage to do it so cheaply?
for community events, celebrations and parties. The whole build took about a
year in all. Jenny: (Laughs) We look out for bargains! If something suitable is on special offer,
we will get it for the next Let’s Lunch. The Let’s Lunch food is cooked in our Village

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