Looking for a gift at the Galleries Shop?  Three new books by all local authors are available from the shop right now.

From Turnpike Gates to Christmas Waits

Historical Notes from Village Life – by Alan Dodge

Alan’s new book is a collection of one-page articles he wrote between January 2004 and December 2010 and which appeared monthly in the Parish Magazine for the villages of Freshford, Limpley Stoke, and Hinton Charterhouse.  They make great reading!  Read about the time when the  Julian calendar was changed to the Gregorian with the loss of 11 September days; about old pounds – enclosed spaces or pinfolds for enclosing stray animals – two still remain here; and even about the beginnings of the Two Tunnels project, due to be completed in October this year.  Delightful illustrations.  Cost £5.95.  Alan held a book signing at the shop recently and is happy to sign more. 

The Opal Moonbaby

Aliens definitely don’t exist … do they? – by Maudie Smith

Says one reviewer:  “A rather lovely debut. Quirky and very charming, Opal is something of a futuristic Pippi Longstocking, which can only be a good thing!” Cost £6.99

The Golden Falcon

Medieval magic, mystery and adventure – by Morag Owen

Finding that the level of water in the river is falling, the king’s son Yan travels to the mountains to explore the source of the river. He succeeds in avoiding several traps along the way but eventually succumbs to the magic of the witch queen Grimhelda.

This is a story of medieval magic, mystery and adventure, with some very engaging characters.  It will appeal to children interested in adventure stories from 8-12 years old.
Review:  “Morag Owen is more than competent as a writer. Fantasy is a genre which can sometimes be overdone, so it is rare to find a book written with such wit and such a light touch as this. There are some lovely images and settings.”

Morag lives on Winsley Hill.  She has degrees in Classics and Social Sciences and has been involved in teaching, editing, social work and research – apart from also being a grandmother of five.   Cost £7.99

Both authors can probably be persuaded to sign a copy!  Just ask.

Following the Big Lottery Village SOS offer of a a £30,000 grant for a small café a extension to the Galleries Shop and the likelihood that planning permission will be granted, deliberations are now underway to decide whether to go ahead with the project.

The shop and café depend crucially on their excellent volunteer team (now 70 strong!) so they need to be fully behind this plan for it to succeed!  A volunteers meeting has been organised for Wednesday 4th April 7 pm in the upstairs room at the Freshford Inn to discuss the proposals and options fully with them.  We hope for a full turn-out but would be happy to receive email comments from anyone who can’t be there in person.

Have a closer look at the plans here.  Details of design can still be changed.  This would involve re-submitting our planning application but this can be done free of charge if it is done in the next few months.

The brightly coloured flower paintings currently on our shop walls of by Widcombe artist Janet Coles whose large, brightly coloured greeting cards we have been selling in the shop for some time.  If you like her style, you might also have a look at Janet’s website where you can see more of her paintings and also textiles, mugs, place mats and other gift items.

Janet’s pictures will be with us until the middle of April when we hope to persuade popular Limpley Stoke artist Elizabeth Barnes to let us have a collection of her pictures for all walls.

Stuart Campbell has produced a painting of our shop!  We plan to hang it high up on the store room wall.

The Bath & NE Somerset Planning Committee decided to defer a decision about our cafe extension application to their next meeting  in a month’s time – that will be on Wednesday 11th April, again at the Guildhall.  Apparently more paperwork is required.  But the committee seemed to be feeling positive about our project and we are confident that it will ultimately be passed.

we will hear about our Village SOS funding application in early April.

The Galleries Shop & Café has made a planning application for a small café extension to the shop.  That application is on the agenda for the Bath & NE Somerset Council’s Planning Committee on Wednesday 14th March 2012, at 2 pm. 

The application was prompted by the announcement that  Big Lottery Village SOS Funding might be available for building up community enterprises just like our Galleries Shop & Café.  FLiSCA has applied for £30,000 from this fund and a condition for the application was a registered planning application.

The proposed extension is small – it would give us 22 sq m of extra indoor space.  This is how it would look:

We have written to the planning officer (who is once again recommending refusal for green belt policy reasons) and will be going along to speak at the committee meeting.  Here is a link to what we said.

Watch this space for news of the outcome!

Right from the beginning – when the Galleries Shop was first set up – FLiSCA hoped to generate solar energy for the shop and so to live up to our green values. Some time ago we obtained planning permission for  an array of solar panels installed along the top of the Galleries Field (carefully hidden from view by a “Haha” ditch)..

"I just sit in the café and watch it make money"

Renewable energy installations are profitable now, with a guaranteed inflation-proof price for the whole 25 year life of the system. So a call went out to all local residents seeking investment funds to finance the project.  This suddenly became very urgent when the Government announced a reduction of the solar energy feed-in tariffs for schemes installed after 12th December.  But we did succeed in getting the system in within the deadline.

The system is expected to produce around 13,000 kW hours per year and the cost turned out to be approximately £55,000. The investment is potentially eligible for the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), which allows 30 per cent of the cost of the investment to be set against an individual’s Income Tax liability.

Potential investors should  receive a good return: 4.5% pa is anticipated, ignoring the tax benefit (on top of getting their money back).  This represents a substantial part of the expected returns with the remainder going to the Galleries Shop (as lower energy bills) and FLiSCA (for spending on community projects).  For technical reasons the project is organised as a separate legal entity – a Community Benefit Society (CBS) – which is like a coop.  It is called Freshford and Limpley Stoke Energy Community Shares (FLECS) Limited.

FLiSCA would like FLECS to have a broad community investor base. At the same time, a large number of very small investments would cause costly administration and paperwork.  Therefore, contributions of at least £750 are being sought.

The full FLECS offer document is still available, which dates from the time before the system was completed, so some of the figures have changed.

Enough investors have been found to cover the cost – but some are flexible about the exact amount.  So there IS still room for a few more.  Interested parties should email FLECS Chair Stephen Dawson before 15th February when FLECS hopes to finalise arrangements.

Our customers  like walking – so we stock Ordnance Survey Explorer maps.  The map covering Freshford and Limpley Stoke is sheet 155 - entitled Bristol and Bath.  The Galleries Shop always has that map in stock, priced £9.95.

However, Bristol takes up most of that map – with Freshford and Limpley Stoke in the very bottom right-hand corner!  For a more useful map, we’ve asked Ordnance Survey to print a map specially for us, same scale (1:25,000)  – but centred on the Galleries Shop.  This Galleries Map is also available from the shop, priced £22.50. It goes as far east as Corsham and Trowbridge and as far south as Beckington and Westbury.

We’ve just said an emotional goodbye to our first apprentice Andy – who enjoyed his time at the shop, learned a lot while gaining a qualification, made many new friends, and is now busy applying for jobs.  He’s already had some offers but is carrying on looking, his confidence boosted by a year’s useful experience at the shop.

We are now looking for our next apprentice!  The job is being advertised on the Government-supported apprenticeship website – all training towards qualifications being organised and provided by others through Government support.  First4Skills in Bristol are handling all applications for us, so any enquiries should be emailed to their Jason Parry in the first instance.

But we are hoping that we will find another LOCAL youngster – so if you know of anyone, please will you encourage them to apply?  We also welcome any enquiries at the shop.  We expect any potential candidate would want to see what the shop is like and what is involved in the job.  And what friendly manager and volunteers he/she would be working with!

Yes we did make it on to national TV just briefly.  Several of our customers and volunteers  ‘starred’ on the Great British Menu with celebrity chef André Garrett – in the evening of Friday 6^th May.  Many saw the program – others were sorry to miss it.  We tried to get a copy to put on our website – alas the BBC wanted £6000 for a five-minute clip!  When we spent a whole day helping them to film that 5 minutes’ worth.  A committee member did download it at the time – so anyone really keen to see it – email us!

Visitors to the shop have enjoyed looking at the lovely four alpacas in the field opposite.  One of them was pregnant – now the baby is here!  But it’s moved closer to home as it needs keeping an eye on:  find it along Sharpstone Lane now.