Welcome to The Galleries Shop

In the heart of Limpley Stoke and Freshford, our community shop and café exist, thanks to the passion and support of the local community. We believe in more than just good food and friendly service, we believe in supporting the local artisans, farmers makers and bakers.

From handmade bread, and small batch ready meals to locally butchered meats and artisan crafts, we proudly stock goods from talented local makers. Every purchase you make helps sustain local livelihoods and reinvests into the villages we call home.

Support our community shop and boost our online presence! Please leave a review here encouraging friends, visitors and passersby to pop in and see for themselves what we have to offer!

Amy has over 10 years of retail managerial experience including running her own successful high street shop and currently lives in Faulkland where she runs the Somerset Lavender farm shop and café.

“I am delighted to be joining the team at the Galleries. This organisation truly inspires me; Community and connection are values that resonate profoundly with me and have significantly shaped the person I am today. It is an honour and privilege to work within such an esteemed community as Freshford and Limpley Stoke. I look forward to getting to know each of you in the coming months, and I am hopeful that with your kind support and collective wisdom, together we can elevate the Galleries to even greater heights.”

Dedicated to the brilliant individuals and small businesses behind the products on our shelves. Discover their stories, their skills and the love they put into everything they create.

Fresh, Local, and Grown With Care. Why We’ve Chosen Lovejoys

Over the past few months, many of you have shared your concerns about the quality of our fruit and veg. We listened closely, because your experience matters deeply to us. So we’ve made a meaningful change, one we’re truly excited about.

We’re now working with Lovejoys, a local business that champions British farmers and celebrates the kind of fresh, beautiful produce grown with pride on family farms across the UK.

This new partnership means:

• More local fruit and veg grown close to home
• Fewer food miles and a lighter footprint
• Fresher, tastier, more vibrant ingredients for your kitchen

Real support for farming families who pour their heart into what they grow

We’ve also reduced our margins significantly to make this fresh, high-quality produce as affordable as possible for our community. We’re committed to bringing you the very best but to keep this going, we do need your support.

Fresh produce is precious. What we don’t sell goes to waste, and we want every carrot, cabbage, and apple to be enjoyed, not thrown away.

So next time you’re picking up your fruit and veg, please think of us, of Lovejoys, and of the local farmers whose hard work fills your basket. Together, we can support local farmers, reduce food miles, and enjoy fresher, more delicious ingredients every day.

From their kitchen in Mells, Cavendish Cooks has been providing the local area with healthy, delicious, and convenient home-cooked meals for over five years. At the heart of it all is Leah Mercer, a passionate and highly trained cook with a wealth of experience and a love for flavour.

Leah began her culinary training at The Grange cooking school before travelling the world to uncover the secrets of global quinine. Her time spent at a culinary school in Thailand has shaped her vibrant cooking style, bringing bold, zingy flavours to every dish. Hand cooking all their meals in small batches in their commercial kitchen in a converted barn in the village of Mells. Leah only orders the ingredients she needs to make each batch – keeping production waste to a minimum.

“Many people find cooking relaxing, but sometime after a day’s work it just seems time-consuming. Keep our frozen meals in your freezer for those days when you want convenience, but still want tasty, healthy food.”

Available in the shop all year round, with a range of portion sizes and flavours, Cavendish Cooks ready meal range can be found in our frozen goods section.

THE BEST INGREDIENTS..

..Give the best flavour. Having worked in food in the southwest for over a decade Leah knows who the best suppliers are to source the best local ingredients from. “All our meat and eggs are free-range, and our fish comes from sustainable sources.”

ECO-FRIENDLY PACKAGING

We are one of first (ready meal companies) to use a wood fibre-based tray – the Huhtamaki fresh! tray.  This tray, manufactured in Northern Ireland, can be composted in your garden like an egg box. Or it can be recycled as cardboard after rinsing. The sleeve that surrounds it is printed on FSC accredited card and can also be recycled.”

Hartley Farm, just 2.6 miles from our shop is home to our local butchery. Taking pride in sourcing the highest quality meat from trusted local producers. Hartley farm have selected a fine range of farmers to stock their butchery.

Freshy hand making the sausages, and burgers that we so proudly stock in our shop, is Kev who has been working in butcheries since his late teens and has a deep respect for the craft. Over the years he has witnessed how the industry has changed, but his passion for traditional butchery remains strong. At Hartley Farm, Kev is committed to keeping the heritage of local butchery alive, using time honoured techniques and sourcing high quality meats from trusted local farmers. In an ever-evolving farming landscape, Kev and the team at Hartley Farm remain dedicated to supporting British agriculture and preserving the values of honest, sustainable production.

The strong connection that Hartley Farm shows to the farming community is one of the many reasons we so proudly stock their products. And their award-winning burgers are a bonus!

Find our range of Hartley Farm meats in our chillers all year round.

“We have been livestock farmers in the village of Winsley for over five generations and today we are home to a herd of native-breed grass-fed beef cattle. We believe the best quality meat starts with happy, healthy animals. At the heart of everything we do is the basic farming principle of high welfare and good animal
husbandry. Along with our own beef, we are supplied by local farmers who also share our ethos. Our meat is traceable, properly cared for and as a result has won us many awards over the years, most notably the Farmer’s Weekly Local Food Farmer of the Year.”

“Our free-range poultry comes from the Cotswolds and Devon, game from local shoots and estates and for Christmas, our birds are supplied by the Copas family in Berkshire. Our outdoor reared pork comes from James Mitchell’s farm in Somerset, with bacon and gammon provided by Cornish Farmhouse. And we source grass-fed lamb from the Cairne family at Lenton Farm in Broughton Gifford just five miles away. Throughout the year we also rear our own Hereford and Angus herd right here on the farm. When we demand excess supply, we work with a network of local farmers to ensure consistent quality and traceability in everything we offer.”

We are proud to be one of the exclusive stockists of the award-winning Levito Bakery. Based in the small village of Castle Cary in Somerset, Levito is best known for its exceptional sourdough and handmade pastries, crafted with care, passion and skill.

Levito’s bakers work through the night in their artisan bakery, hand shaping and slow proving their sourdoughs for a minimum of 18 hours to achieve that signature open crumb complex and tangy flavour. Their mission has always been simple: to make bread and pastries they’d be proud to serve at their own table.

Delivered to us by 7am, this bread doesn’t just look beautiful, the taste and quality speak for themselves. Alongside loaves, we also receive a batch of fresh pastries in every delivery.

“We receive fresh bread deliveries three times a week, on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. With our most popular loaf the Levito Seeded Sourdough often selling out within hours”

In the heart of Bath, under 5 miles away from our shop is the renowned Bertinet Bakery. Producing an exceptional range of artisanal breads, sourdoughs and pastries from renowned baker Richard Bertinet. Every loaf is moulded and finished by hand and baked daily in Bath using only the finest natural ingredients, with no preservatives, additives or pre-mixes in sight.

Delivered to us fresh every Saturday morning, these breads and pasteries are the perfect weekend treat, comforting, satisfying and beautifully made.

We are a community business that trades for community benefit and is democratically owned and controlled by the local community in Freshford and Limpley Stoke. Since we opened in 2009 we have relied on a base of volunteers who have maintained our sustainability as a business. This commitment and loyalty has helped to create the community cohesion which encourages more volunteers, and it is what gives our community shop its longevity.

Galleries goes beyond providing retail provisions and a cafe, it has become a focal point for community events and voluntary activity. It actively takes care to look after people in our villages and is the place where people come to meet and catch up. Fundamentally it has become a real hub for local residents, a well-known shop for passing trade along the main road, and a popular destination for walkers, cyclists and visitors looking for a snack or lunch or a drink. Our reputation has grown, which has contributed to our sustainability.

Taking a long term view on renewable energy with the purchase of solar panels has ensured that Galleries is able to supply its own power but also able to sell back surplus power to the grid, and this has been especially impactful during periods of volatility in the price of electricity.

We are careful to ensure our suppliers provide good quality produce, and where possible our fresh foods are locally sourced. Some of our vegetables and herbs are grown on site.