Welcome to The Purpose Brief. In this episode
we're looking at something simple but very powerful.
What happens when communities work together and
take ownership of their future? There are some
brilliant examples across the country of where
this has been successful and my argument has
always been that communities can collectively
create more social good by taking the initiative
themselves. Across rural Britain, in particular,
shops, pubs and other community assets are doing
far more than stocking the shelves. There's a
growing movement of community -owned cooperatives
that are unlocking funding, creating jobs, tackling
loneliness and bringing people together beyond
the divides. In this episode, you'll hear from
George Ogier from Plunkett UK about their work
and ethos. And then we'll go to Colin Pollock
from Bishop Wilton Community Shop and Cafe in
the east riding of Yorkshire. He's part of a
village who proved that with enough determination,
community spirit and a little bit of northern
grit, you can build something that really matters.
First, let's go to George. George, thank you
for joining us today. Thank you for having me.
Let's talk about Plunkett UK. So Plunkett UK
is a member -led charity that has been in operation
for over 100 years now. It was started by an
Irish politician, Horace Plunkett, in the early
1900s. And Horace was obsessed with the idea
of cooperatives and how people should have more
agency over the produce they were supplying to
the wider public. And through that, we've done
lots of work over the years on cooperatives all
over the world. And as time's gone on, we've
sort of shrunk down our overview, if you like,
to the UK. And now we support rural communities
up and down the UK to run community -owned businesses
with a view to creating and helping them create
thriving, resilient and inclusive. communities
at a time where services are being stripped away
and we're seeing sort of migration out of rural
areas because they're just not sustainable to
live in in a lot of cases. Talk to me about how
community -owned businesses work and what are
the models that you have successfully implemented
across the UK? So from a Plunkett standpoint,
community -owned businesses are anything with
a trade at its heart that operates for the benefit
of the community. And it can be a community defined
by the people who are living there, but they
operate for the benefits of the community. So
any money made, and we don't talk about profits,
we talk about surpluses. So any of those surpluses
either go back into the business or are donated
to other local causes. It might be the youth
football club, anything like that. might benefit
from it. When we talk about community businesses,
our definition involves that wide democratic
ownership model. So we want as many people who
live locally to have a say in the way these businesses
are run as possible. So primarily, the businesses
we support incorporate as what we know as community
benefit societies. We have our own set of model
rules, a constitution, if you like, that are
ratified by the Financial Conduct Authority.
and they're geared towards, as I say, that one
member, one vote. So regardless of how much money
you invest as a shareholder, you're only entitled
to one vote, and that removes... Those barriers
to entry, you keep the share prices down, and
that means that everybody can be involved. And
it doesn't become the preserve of two or three
local wealthy people, which isn't necessarily
a bad thing, but it's not the ethos that Plunkett
adheres to. And as I say, we want as many people
involved in the running of these businesses as
possible, because that way they become a reflection
of the communities in which they sit. What are
the challenges around rural isolation and rural
communities? You've just released your... impact
report for 2026. Just talk us through some of
the headlines there. I think my biggest takeaway
is the success of the sector as a whole. It's...
The biggest thing for me is the short and long
-term survival rates. So over the first five
years, the community -owned business model has
a survival rate of 98%. And if you extrapolate
that out to 10, 15, 20 years, it only drops to
94 % survival rate. If you look at privately
-owned equivalents in the first five years, I
think that's around sort of 42%, 43 % survival
rate. So they're twice as successful as privately
-owned businesses. And it comes back to that
idea of those businesses meeting needs in their
community rather than it just being a business
plan devised by an individual. The challenges
we have, I think, are we see a lack of opportunity
for people. paucity of opportunity if you like
a poverty of services so when we talk about the
impact report it's based around five key areas
that we work closely with primarily it's providing
access to goods and services so it's For example,
many shops that we work with run post offices
as well. So it's making sure that people have
access to cash and things like that. It's investing
in local people through the creation of jobs,
volunteering and training opportunities. So thinking
about how you might upskill your community as
well. It's that first job for teenagers. It's
that sort of semi -retirement, retired. group
of people who are still very, very active and
still want to be part of something. We look at
boosting the local economy through localised
supply chains. So buying your stocks from local
producers where possible. And that has an impact
on the next one, which is tackling climate change.
So you're reducing food miles and things like
that. So as I say, tackling climate change through
initiatives. A lot of businesses we work with
have solar panels on the roof, that kind of thing.
And finally, it comes to... EDI. And when we
talk about EDI through community businesses,
it really is that idea of creating safe and welcoming
spaces. We want everybody in the community to
feel that they can be a part of these businesses,
either as a shareholder, as a volunteer or a
paid member of staff, or even as a customer.
We don't want there to be any barriers to involvement
with that. So I think the business models that
we look at and the businesses we support. are
set up to tackle those things, as I say, those
paucity of services and opportunities and just
kind of... It's that rising tide floats many
ships. I think one of the interesting things
about community businesses, for every pound spent
with a community business, 56 pence stays within
the local economy, as opposed to, I think, around
41, 42p when spent, again, with a privately owned
equivalent. So it's not just about having a pub
or just having about a shop. It's what those
businesses can do over and above the day -to
-day trading activities that you would expect
from that model. to deliver more to their communities.
Part of it's about community shops, and we'll
come on to that in a little bit. You've funded
a lot of work with pubs, rural community pubs,
cafes, farms and woodlands. Do you want to say
a little bit about some of the examples around
that? Because I think there's a whole mix of
things there around rural assets and the purpose
of them, and they're all quite different. Yeah,
absolutely. I mean, to be perfectly clear, James,
what we're talking about in the majority of cases
is pubs and shops, but there is a diversity of
business types. We supported a couple of farm
projects over the years. One that springs to
mind is Fordall Farm. They've been going for
a long time now, and it's a really interesting
project where you get sort of... access to, again,
opportunities, but open spaces and a chance to
sort of work on agricultural projects as well
as anything. We've supported a couple of distilleries
as well, particularly up in Scotland, and community
hubs too. It's not just that there might be a
shop as part of a wider community hub, but one
of our award winners from our Rural Community
Business Awards last year was a community hub
up in Scotland. who add hundreds of thousands
of pounds to the local economy every year through
the efforts they're doing in terms of educating
people and upskilling people, but actually just
paying a living wage. So yes, when we talk about
community -owned businesses, I guess our bread
and butter is shops and pubs, but there is that
real diversity of business types as well. Not
to a great degree, but it does exist. There's
something interesting there about the supply
chain. but also the local jobs market, which
we know is a big challenge in rural communities.
Do you want to say a little bit more about that
work? I touched on earlier the first job for
a teenager. I think a third of community -owned
businesses in the UK represent a young person's
first paid employment. But if we look at the
volunteering and training side of things, again,
33 % of community -owned businesses offer employment
to people with long -term health conditions or
disabilities. Again, it might be a volunteering
opportunity. We see a lot of these, particularly
shops, offer volunteering opportunities for Duke
of Edinburgh students. And that often leads into
paid employment. We worked with a shop in Semley
in Wiltshire. over the last couple of years and
they have a scheme called the paid young people
scheme now you have to have done i think 12 weeks
of volunteering with them and through that you
you sort of learn the ropes and you learn how
to make coffees with with the coffee machine
and operate the epos the electronic point of
sale so the tills but yeah it's that it's that
sort of volunteering into paid paid employment
but also as we've touched on at the other end
of the generational scale It's offering sort
of volunteering opportunities to those retired
and semi -retired people who still want to be
part of something and still feel incredibly active.
Is this about community cohesion for rural communities?
What we noticed is when we see these communities
start to lose services, the shop goes, the doctor's
surgery goes. Basically, you're losing these
third spaces where people can come and meet.
And when that happens, particularly if you're
older and say you've lost a partner or a spouse
and you find yourself on your own, if we lose
these third spaces, it's no exaggeration to say
that some individuals can go weeks without having
face -to -face conversation with other people.
we spoke to somebody involved with a shop that
exists in a church in Amberley in Gloucestershire,
and they were saying through the shop that operates
through the sort of community -owned shop. They
were able to stay in the house that they'd lived
in for 35 plus years because it was walking distance.
If there wasn't a shop there, they didn't have
access to a car. They would have to move to Gloucester,
where it's a more built up community, where they
would have access to services. And it is all
of these things chime in. So we talked to somebody
again who sadly lost their spouse. I think they'd
been married for 40, 50 years. That's a huge
change in anyone's life. You're dealing with
all kinds of grief. And what these community
businesses offer is kind of an on -the -hoof
bereavement service, if you like, because they're
able to go and in a lot of cases have this space
where other people will have experienced the
same grief. And it's a chance for them to navigate
that together. And so when we talk about more
than in terms of being more than a pub or more
than a shop, these are the real tangible things
that we mean. They represent so much more than
buying a pint of milk or a loaf of bread or a
pint of beer. They represent a social lifeline
and an anchor for so many people. Yeah, 100%.
And there's a huge piece of... that many communities
need to think about in their place, which is
around connecting to individuals beyond social
media. And I think that at times of hardship
for people, they just want a friendly conversation.
And if that space isn't there, that safe space
isn't there, that's the other thing. And I was
going to come back to you and talk a little bit
around... What does inclusion look like in rural
spaces? Because that's really interesting. My
role at Plunkett is I am the impact officer.
So my role revolves around how Plunkett delivers
a deeper social impact as an organisation, but
also how the groups we support can deliver deeper
social impact. And it was a conference we did
a couple of years ago, and one of the speakers...
sort of mentioned this phrase of who isn't here.
And it's something that's really resonated with
me and something I've tried to take into my work
as an impact officer. If we're going to talk
about a community -owned enterprise on any level,
whether it's trading, whether it's any kind of
community group, when you have these village
and small town projects, invariably the people
involved with them are involved in everything.
We have this core. All these small communities
have these cores of people who give up their
time and they're probably sitting on two or three
different committees all over the village or
the town. I know that's certainly the case where
I live. And so that idea of inclusion is actually
taking stock when you're in these situations
and on these committees of looking around the
room and thinking, I know my community. And if
you're on these committees, you tend to do know
who you live around. And you sort of have to
ask yourself, is everybody represented here?
Have we made a real effort to think about making
sure that everyone who should have a seat at
the table does? They don't have to take that
offer up, but they should always feel empowered
to do so. A lot of my work looks at hidden diversity,
particularly in rural areas. When we talk about
EDI, I think it puts a lot of people on the back
foot. And some of the responses we get when we
talk about EDI to people looking to access Plunkett
support, quite often we'll hear, oh, well, we
live in a rural area. EDI doesn't really apply
to us because ostensibly these communities from
the outside all look very similar. But we're
not necessarily talking about race or sexuality
or gender. All of those things are incredibly
important and should be a huge part of your inclusivity
work. But we're also talking about single parent
families. We're talking about care experience,
young people who've grown up in the sort of fostering
system and things like that. We're talking, I'm
doing some work at the moment around young carers,
so young people who are responsible for looking
after older people in their home. And not even
that, they're just around one of their caregivers
might need constant care themselves as well.
So when we talk about diversity and inclusion,
it means making sure that the ex -armed forces
personnel who might be dealing with psychological
issues, having seen action for our armed forces,
this is what inclusion means. It means knowing
your community. and offering the opportunity
for those people, should they wish to, to be
part of it. Coming back to that idea, either
as a shareholder, committee member, volunteer,
staff, or even a customer, it's just removing
those barriers to entry and making sure that
whilst on the tin it says community -owned business,
it's not... a clique of the usual people who
are involved in these things. And that's not
to denigrate those people at all. They give up
their time and they make these projects tick,
but we have to make sure we have a whole world
view when it comes to the communities we live
in. It's those quiet voices which are the most
important and thinking about how you draw those
out is one of the biggest challenges around this.
So it's great. And we've got some... case studies
of what we're talking to later in the podcast
around a very clear model of rural community
and how to run it and how to bring people around
the table because you always get the doers you
get the do -gooders you get the quiet voices
and then you'll get your populists as i call
them that always have lots of opinions about
things but it's it's that ability to be active
and for clear leadership to come through that's
that's where this comes to life where successful
models are delivered i would guess may i ask
you about your your lived experience of this
because you're from a rural background you based
there i've lived with cerebral palsy since birth
so i have some mobility issues they're not immediately
obvious but if you saw me walking from a to b
it would become quite obvious but if you ally
that to living in a rural community it's been
a very interesting experience for me I think
when we first moved to where we live now one
of the reasons we fell in love with the place
was because of all the amazing things that happened
and they largely happened because people gave
up their time to make them happen they weren't
being paid to do these things and I was lucky
enough to be a stay -at -home parent at the time
So I was able to volunteer and get involved with
that stuff. And there were, from a very personal
point of view, I ran the parent and toddler group,
but there were bits I couldn't do within that.
And so we rallied around as a team and filled
in the gaps that I couldn't do. And this is what
we mean when we talk about community -owned businesses
and removing those barriers. So I think... I'm
very lucky in that I've lived in a very supportive
community who, by and large, all want the best
for the people who live around here. You were
right when you mentioned sort of the pub populist
in that when you start a community project of
this nature, you're always going to have these
naysayers, oh, this will never work, and kind
of keeping that transparency and just being as
open about the project as you can and sort of
relying on that transparency to sort of back
up your argument. But as I say, The reason I
ended up working for Plunkett or applying to
work for Plunkett, I should say, is because the
values that we've talked about already in terms
of how we want our community businesses to succeed,
those are things that are important to me. It's
those opportunities for young people. It's making
sure that older residents in the community are
thought of and provided for in terms of what
are we going to do? with the extra time we might
have once we've retired? Are there things in
place that are interesting, engaging? And so
sort of finding myself working for an organisation
that aligns with so much of my values has been
one of the most rewarding parts of my life. Yeah,
the whole thing's been a massive learning curve
for me, but I think I work in a team that shares
my values. I spoke recently at our... Impact
Report launch in London as part of a wider panel.
And I said at the time, I think Plunkett's the
first time I've ever worked for an organisation
where everybody truly believes in our mission
and what we're trying to do. And it makes it
really easy to go to work every day. Obviously,
there's gripes about work, everyone has them.
But we work in a very supportive, positive team,
all who sort of share the same ideals. So I've
been able to take... my experiences of community
activity and turn that into a career. Very purpose
-driven, George. I like it. Tell me a little
bit about what's coming up next for Plunkett.
I mentioned that we launched our impact report
last week and you've touched on that as well,
James. We were really lucky. We were able to
do it at the Shard in London, which was an amazing
experience. I'd never been there. And to have
those views over London and be surrounded by
all of these amazing community businesses and
people who really are working hard to make a
difference. So that was really cool. But in the
future, in just under two weeks, we have our
Rural Community Business Awards, which we do
every year. And for the last few years, We've
hosted that at the Royal Society of Chemistry.
One of the plus points about working at Plunkett
is you get to see the inside of some really interesting
spaces that you might not do otherwise. So our
awards are to shine a light on our member businesses
who are making a difference, really. There's
lots of different categories around our areas
of impact and also celebrating those individuals
who really go the extra mile to make a difference.
So, yeah, really looking forward to that. We're
about to enter into our new strategy period.
This year saw the end of our last strategy period.
And whilst we're not really – I don't think –
We're changing a huge amount. There'll be little
tweaks about what we really focus on. I probably,
I don't know if I'm meant to be mentioning this,
so I will keep it as vague as possible, James.
But yeah, that's what's coming up. So our focus
is currently on the awards. And personally, I'll
be up at Glasgow in August for the Development
Trust Association Scotland Conference, which
I went to last year. Plug Kit works all over
the UK and some of my job is working with the
Devolved Nations. So I love having the opportunity
to go up to Scotland, spend time there. I'm actually
going up with my family beforehand as well to
spend a little bit of time up there and to visit
a couple of community owned businesses we work
with too. How can people engage in this if they
really wanted to take a community shop or pub
model forward? The amount of work involved in
setting up a community business can't be understated.
But we support nearly 900 community -owned businesses
all over the UK, with another 1 ,000 in the pipeline.
34 new businesses opened in the last 12 months.
It is absolutely achievable. And I think that's...
When you start out on these projects, the thing
to remember is, it is... achievable we've had
projects that started in less than six months
we've had projects that's taken 15 years to open
you can run the gamut of all kinds of time and
challenges but if people are really keen on starting
a project of this nature or getting involved
in it the key thing to remember is involving
everybody when you first get in touch with plunkett
to sort of knock around the idea of a community
-owned business and have a think about how that
might work we ask groups to hit evidential markers
to access our support and the first one is very
simple it's forming a steering group of no fewer
than three locally rooted people to take the
project forward for the first 12 months we ask
you to consider other organizations and businesses
that might be impacted by your plans so get out
there and have a chat with anyone who you think
might have an influence, well, not an influence
necessarily, but as I say, might be impacted
by it. Because one of the things to remember
is you don't want to be duplicating work. So
if another organisation is doing X, Y and Z when
it comes to that idea of more than and offering
more to a service, there's no point doing it
twice. So make sure your activities are dovetailing
with what already exists. But the last one, and
this is really, really key. And unless Plunkett
sees evidence that you've done this, we won't
be able to help you. is the idea of community
consultation and we can provide all manner of
resources to assist with this but it's getting
out putting feet on the ground and going and
speaking to people in your area about developing
that appetite for that wide open democratic model
of ownership if you can demonstrate to us that
you've done these three things we can give you
access to early stages planning looking at business
planning and things like that sort of feasibility
stuff But yeah, we need to know that the community
supports it and also that the opportunity is
realistically there. So if you get in touch with
us and say, we'd like to take our pub into community
ownership, but it's not on the market for sale,
there's not a lot we can really do about that.
We can't force people to sell pubs. We find that
a lot of our work starts... through necessity.
People get in touch, the shop's about to shut,
the pub's about to close. In some cases, in danger
of redevelopment. In other cases, it might just
be the current incumbent wants to retire, wants
to move away, but actually wants to see the business
continue, but in community ownership. One of
the things that our impact report touched on
as well is the growth of the sector in general.
People are starting to understand the community
ownership model more. And with those survival
rates I touched on earlier, it really is a viable
model and it has a long -term success rate and
it does change communities and it changes lives.
Do you have any favourite, you talked about going
up to Scotland and taking the family and going
and dropping in on a few projects, but do you
have any standout projects which you... close
to you and your values and you love them very
much it's a bit like having kids you sort of
you love them all dearly but sometimes there
are moments where you do get frustrated and you
I think if I had to look at community businesses
that have really stood out to me it tends to
be a mixture of things it tends to be ones I
have worked with for a long time so those ones
I started working with when I began on my Plunkett
journey if you like and it's those ones who are
really making a difference in those communities
so one that touches on both I did some filming
very early on in my Plunkett career and it was
around a project called I Will and it was getting
young people more involved in community -owned
businesses and It was a pub in Staffordshire
called the Auctioneer's Arms, and it was managed
by a gentleman, Terry Rogers, who has a history
of working in the hospitality industry. And he
worked very closely with the pub committee and
has just offered a lot of young people, sometimes
who have had many, many barriers to get over,
to just get to a point where they can comfortably
go to work every day. He's given a lot of young
people that entry into the hospitality industry.
There was one young lady, we made a film about
her, Tilly, who had crippling anxiety. And her
mum organised a job for her working in the pot
wash at the auctioneer's arms. And to begin with,
Tilly would go into work. do her job, never leave
the pot wash, never speak to anybody, never eat,
never drink, and then go home again. And as time
progressed, she came out of her shell and felt
more comfortable there. Tilly's now the deputy
manager of the pub. She's got a number of hospitality
qualifications, all supported by the pub and
paid for by the pub for her to achieve. She's
spoken at our national conference, and she's
spoken at a huge event called Anthropy that happens
every year down in Cornwall, all in support of
what Plunkett do. And so that's one that really
resonates with me. And there is one, and I suspect
this is going to come up later on, is a shop
called Bishop Wilton in Yorkshire, not far from
you. And they have done, in fact, they won our
Keeping It Local Award last year at the Rural
Community Business Awards. And their work with
local suppliers has been exemplary. They are
always going the extra mile to look for new partnerships.
The shop manager, Anna, does a lot of that work
herself. But also what it's done is it's given
people an opportunity to grow their own businesses.
I think from memory, there was an individual
who was baking cakes for the shop who now does
it as a business in their own right. So something
that started as a very sort of simple helping
out has now become a sort of cottage industry,
if you like. And it's that boosting the local
economy, again, through localised supply chains.
Or if we go back to the auctioneer's arms, putting
money in the pockets of young people who work
for the pub. And just to touch on the auctioneer's
arms again, they have a team of 21 people, all
of whom live within a mile of the pub, which
I think is an incredible, incredible feat of
recruitment and just shows the impact these can
have on a hyper -local level. Thanks for mentioning
Bishop Milton. We're going to come on to that
next. But I think that's a really good example
of somewhere that has worked really hard at a
time of challenge around the pandemic and COVID
and what happened to communities where they desperately
needed that resource and everybody just got behind
it. It was a really lovely example of how communities
can just chip away and support each other. and
create those spaces. So I think it's a great
project for us to feature here. George, what
are your thoughts on the future of community
-owned? Is this something that we need to see
more of in the UK? I'm quite the evangelist when
it comes to this as a model. I've seen it work
and I've seen the difference it makes. I'm at
pains to point out that this is my view, but
I think community -owned businesses fill holes
that should be filled. at a much higher level
but the fact that those holes need to be filled
and will continue need to continue to need to
be filled means that community ownership is vital
particularly in rural communities it always comes
back to that thing we touched on that that paucity
of service paucity of services and sort of poverty
of opportunity And without community -owned businesses,
that poverty is only going to increase. There's
a real misconception that everyone who lives
in a rural community has some degree of comfort
in life and a good amount of money. I live in
a very outwardly affluent area, but there are
pockets of absolute poverty where I live. But
because it doesn't look... like it does and it
looks like quite a quite an affluent place that
often gets swept under the carpet we see that
with funding issues i think if we look at we
look at funds historically they're often and
understandably so and i i don't it's not it's
not to denigrate the fact that urban projects
get more of this funding it's absolutely necessary
in urban areas But I think rural areas miss out
on a lot of those opportunities because of the
misconception I mentioned earlier. It was revealed
in a study that a person growing up in a rural
area in poverty is five times less likely to
go to university than an urban counterpart. And
that's simply for... that lack of services and
lack of opportunity. So we're talking about poor
public transport, poor internet services, poor
job opportunities. A lot of schemes that support
young people in poverty are very urban -led.
And again, to reiterate, they do amazing, amazing
work, but rural communities are being left behind.
And that's where community -owned businesses
come in and sort of fill that void in so many
cases. So in terms of the future and the importance
of community -owned businesses, I can't state
strongly enough how vital the work they do is
and how... how it's imperative that it continues.
George, thank you very much for chatting to us
today. Now, let's go to the micro and talk to
Colin Pollock from Bishop Wilton Community Shop
and Cafe. Colin, welcome. We are going to talk
today about Bishop Wilton Community Shop. So
tell me about how this came about. What's the
backstory to it? Bishop Wilton, small village
at the foot of the East Yorkshire Walls, nearest
town's Pocklington, about four or five miles
away, and Stamford Bridge, same distance. About
500 souls live here, and it's always had a village
shop in one way or another over the years of
varying sorts, but 2018, the owner of the current
village shop at that point was a chap called
Alec, who'd retired, basically, and he decided...
that that was his time to close the shop. And
it kind of hit the village pretty hard in the
sense that being a small village shop, it was
missed immediately. And a group of villagers
got together very soon after the shop closed
saying, there must be something we can do to
help replace that void. And so that was 2018.
And between 2018, 2020, there was a lot of hard
work from people in the village. Small working
groups were formed. Villages were canvassed,
we had open meetings. And once there was a general
feeling there was enough support, both emotional,
moral and physical, to see what we could do to
try and open our own shop, a working group was
formed and it became clear that there were two
major things really. One is to find some premises
and two is to raise some funds. And so that's
where a lot of the hard work went in in those
two years. and also with some successful fund
grant applications, we managed to raise sort
of £70 ,000 and were able to find a premises
which, again, totally fortuitously, somebody
who lived in the village, a member of their family,
were willing to buy it on our behalf and basically
charge us a peppercorn rent for the first five
years. And we could therefore spend... most of
the funds that we'd raised to refurbish and stock
the shop. Essentially, in the start of 2020,
we had a working model, we had a refurbished
shop, we had a rented property, which wasn't
going to cost us an awful lot because of the
peppercorn rent, and we were able to open at
the end of January 2020. Six years plus on, we're
still here and thriving. And of course, you were
hit by a certain... milestone in 2020? Well,
in that final six to eight weeks over the Christmas
and the January period, 2019 Christmas, 2020
January, we're obviously aware of what was going
on around the world with horror stories about
COVID. We obviously had that in mind, but we
just thought we've got to go ahead. The paint's
wet. We've started buying the stock. And so we
opened the shop thinking, well, what will be,
will be. And that was end of January. And then
within eight weeks, We had the national lockdown.
So we immediately plunged into operating in a
totally different business model, if you like.
We were all naive. Very, very few of us, only
one person got any kind of experience in retail
wholesale. And so we were literally flying blind
as to how we would cope with the whole supply
chain across the world falling apart. So we learned
a lot very quickly. We also learned that local
suppliers are extraordinary. That was one of
our premises when we first started. We wanted
to be a local shop with local suppliers. And
to this day, we pride ourselves in how close
we keep the number of food miles. And those local
suppliers, they went above and beyond to try
and make sure that as a new enterprise, as a
new local shop, we would keep going with the
suppliers as best we could. And with the organisation
being volunteer run, we had a group of volunteers
who were, A, everybody was scared. Nobody really
knew what was happening. Because of my medical
background, I was very involved in trying to
put together a series of plans and arrangements
in the shop to protect customers and protect
volunteers, to make sure you were working within
the law at all times. It was a bit of a wartime
mentality. We all said, we'll get through it.
And we did. I mean, we made mistakes. Things
were difficult. But what came across very, very
clearly from the off was that it was so fortuitous,
particularly for vulnerable people in the community,
that here we were being able to offer them some
kind of support service for those who weren't
able to go out, weren't able to go and do their,
you know, once a week or whatever it was, twice
a week shop in a local shop. And we kind of just
buckled down and tried to do what we could with
what supplies we could. I mean, ironically, and
again, this is just down to pure luck and fortune,
which I think is a theme that I've picked up
over the last five to six years. One of our core
members of the original working group committee,
her family ran one of the country's biggest flower
suppliers. And ironically, we became one of the
very few places in Yorkshire. where we had a
continual supply of flour. So we got known for
the fact that people could actually come and
get flour from us when every other shop in the
area was having to beg, steal and borrow it.
Do you think there's something interesting there
about how rural communities respond because you
realise how isolated individuals or families
are, even though they feel quite connected when
not in a wartime setting? Yeah. Yeah, I think
that is one of the dangers of real communities,
is that if there aren't cohesive forces to bring
them together of whatever sort in communities,
then it's very easy for people to be very lonely
and isolated and therefore vulnerable in their
own right. One of the kind of recurrent themes
you hear people talking about when we get together
as a community, the usual one is when we have
our annual members meeting, is people say, I
just know. so many more people now in this village
because of the shop. I ever did. I'd lived in
the village for 10 years and I didn't know this
person, this person, this person, because it's
very easy to be within your own small groups
in a small rural community and not have that
exposure for whatever reason with the wider community
in that rural setting. So yes, I agree very much.
So recently you've had... A couple of awards
and lots of celebrations for your sixth birthday.
Do you want to say a bit more about your reflections
on that and how that makes you feel and what
you've done collectively? Oh, immense pride.
You know, when you do see the amount of work
that people put in selflessly over the years,
and then to have two awards, the East Raleigh
and Yorkshire Council Chairman's Awards, 2023,
we won the Community Group Award. Again, that
was fantastic. A great time to celebrate and
to allow people to go to the ceremony and be
part of that. And then in 2026, we also won the
same award, but in the Employee Group Under 50
Award. So they were fantastic because it was,
you know, we had a lot of support from local
organisations, including the Israeli Yorkshire
Council. So that was really nice for us to be
part of that. We've been a finalist in Farm and
Food, Farm Shop and Deli Awards nationally. we
won in 2025 we won the plunkets award for keeping
it local plunkets being a fantastic support organization
nationally for all community businesses volunteer
-run community businesses and i think the plunkets
award was particularly good because they have
been one of the main reasons why we're here because
they've just offered us that sound advice that
wisdom that guiding hand when we really had no
idea what we were doing. I can't kind of laud
them enough for what they do as a national organisation.
And you did a lot of work on fundraising to get
that initial pump priming, if you like, together.
How difficult was that? And I'm also interested,
how does the shop business model work with community
shares? One of the very early decisions, again,
advised by Plunkett at the time, was what was
the trading model? What was the charitable model,
if you like, that we would best work under? A
very important piece of legislation, 2014 Community
Benefit Societies Act, came into place, which
essentially allowed a different model of operating
as a business, but for the... prime purpose of
supporting the community within which the business
works so it was quite clear to us we needed to
be a community benefit society it's not a charity
we are governed and controlled by the by the
fca and it allows us to trade as a business it
allows us and the foundation of it is having
a sharehold membership and that was the basis
upon which we went out to villages and to people
outside the village members of families who people
lives in the village to say would you like to
become a member shareholder of the bishop wilton
community shop community benefits society and
basically the way it works is you have it's a
10 pound share offer and people can put in as
much as they want as little as they want the
important bit is the numbers of members you have
we still each year find our membership going
up and up and up i think last time i Looked at
the figures, it's 282 members. And every single
person who's a member gets regular updates on
how the shop's doing, whether they live locally
or live in Singapore or wherever they are. It's
been part of the brand, really, about what the
shop is all about. That was our main way of raising
money right at the very start, plus some very
good funding. We got through a number of different
grants that we applied for. And any advice for
people who are thinking about this? Applying
for grants is one thing. There's mobilising the
community behind it. Were there any challenges
there, opportunities? I think when you look back,
it's very to say, oh, it was fine. We knew the
money would come in. You've just got to really
keep saying the message and you've just got to
keep promoting what you're there about. And whilst
some grant funding can give you a nice solid
base, what you're really after is that buy -in
from local people. And inevitably, I think there
are people who weren't quite sure what it was
all about. People who thought, you know, well,
is this something we can really make work in
a small village like this? And I think you just
need a core number of people who just keep saying
the message and believing in it. Our membership's
grown since we've opened. We knew we needed a
core number of shareholders and a core amount
of membership funding. We knew that some people
would go above and beyond the £10, and they did.
You just have to hope that those individuals
will stand up and be counted. We got a lot of
support from local businesses as well. Again,
we are fortunate in having quite a big local
landowner in the village, a big employer and
a big business. And they have been terrific in
supporting us all the way from the start because
I think they could see it was a win -win for
them having a thriving shop in the local area.
for the people who work for the local estate
to be able to use. That felt like a collaborative,
cooperative approach to enhancing what the community
was offering. Are there any memorable stories
or anecdotes about where you thought we've really
achieved what we set out to? COVID in its own
right was amazing. I remember being on shift
one day, some local teenagers just came in and
we got, luckily, part of our refurbishment, we
put a mezzanine in, which we wanted to be a kind
of... just a sort of breakaway small area people
could come and sit and talk and meet. And some
teenagers came in and just sat doing their homework
and they were chatting away. And it was quite
clear that that was something that they really
valued as a local hub. And we keep promoting
ourselves as not just a shop, but we're a hub
as well for people to get together. We've got
groups of men that get together every Tuesday
and meet for coffee and just sit and talk. Effectually,
you know, as the grumpy gits, because, you know,
all men are all grumpy gits. But, you know, but
I think they get a lot of support from each other.
And if a cash and carry delivery comes in in
the middle of them having their coffees, they're
up and they're helping take it all upstairs,
things like that. So it's those little, very
intangible things that you see in the shop. You
think, that's exactly why we're here. Again,
speaking very personally, there was a customer
I was quite concerned about late one night. This
was the middle of the winter. We shut about half
five at night and she'd been in the shop from
about half past four, kind of minding her own
business. But I was quite worried about her because
she didn't seem at all herself. And it was very
clear that she was quite a long way from home.
Myself and the manager, Anna, we both basically
ended up calling the police and thankfully managing
to find out where this lady eventually lived.
She was very vulnerable without going into details.
And we were able to make sure she got back home
safely that night. So, you know, that kind of
thing, if you were pushing to get the shop shut,
you'd have just been kicking out the door and
whatever. So I think things like that, to me,
are the essence of why that shop is different
to any other corner shop that you've got. Because
we do actually quite care about people who come
into the shop and why they're there. Yeah, absolutely.
Tell me about what's coming up with the shop.
Any big plans for the future? One of our strengths
is that we are in an amazing, it's an old primitive
Methodist chapel. And it's quite a glorious building.
It's been refurbished. We opened it all up. We've
got nice mezzanine windows and velixes. And it's
a lovely, lovely space. Very welcoming. It's
also part of our challenge is the building. It's
old. We are... totally push for space all the
time. We don't have really any outside storage
at all. We beg, borrow storage from villagers
for our coal and logs and things like that. And
so just practically just getting stuff into the
shop from where it's sold in the village can
be difficult. So space is a big problem for us.
We have the great fortune. The original owners
of the shop who bought it from the previous shop
owner let us have it basically peppercorn rent
free. They were very willing to sell the shop
to us when we had enough money. And we've luckily
made enough money in our reserves to be able
to buy the shop off the previous owner. So now
the shop is ours. And that is a very important
symbolic thing for us as a community. It's now
become a community asset, as well as our village
hall, the church, obviously things like that,
and the school. So it adds to our capacity, capital,
I should say, as a village. The other big practical
thing it does for us is it means that if we want
to do any refurbishments in the shop, the money
that we put in from the members' funds, the shares,
into refurbishing, it's likely we'll get that
back because it will enhance the worth of the
building, which probably wouldn't have been the
case if we were still renting it. So that's opened
the door for us to then think about, well, What's
our next step in terms of refurbishing the shop?
So there are plans being early stages as to how
we might be able to do some extra work inside
to try and help improve storage, which is our
biggest need, really. I mean, that will probably
take us maybe a couple of years to get around
to doing. Inevitably, a big refurbishment of
a shop internally will require us to shut. We've
never shut in six years, apart from Christmas
Day. That's a big mantra for us. And so the occasion
that we're going to have to shut it to refurbish
it will be quite a big step and one we won't
undertake lightly. Tell me about your volunteers
and what they mean to the organisation. I think
currently we're looking about 70 plus volunteers
from eight to 80 is the phrase we use. Volunteer
run, volunteer powered. I heard the phrase used
the other day, which I really liked. It is powered
by volunteers. We are lucky enough in terms of
the profits we make to be able to afford to employ
one and a half managers. And even during the
summertime, we can afford to take on some local
young people who are looking for work to do some
extra hours in the shop. But the volunteers are
the ones that have literally kept the shop open
every day for six years apart from Christmas
Day. And the nice thing about it is over the
years, that volunteer group continually changes
all the time and the people that made up the
original cohort of volunteers is gradually shifting
i think volunteering organizations probably generally
have an issue about the people who usually have
time to volunteer are older and obviously older
volunteer groups tend to get older other duties
come in like grandparenting and their own health
and things like that so we try and make sure
we've got some kind of regular volunteer recruitment
retention program running which allows us to
bring new people in and to make sure that that
volunteer group remains fresh and remains active
and people learn from the old hands and then
what other new hands become the old hands you
know you can see it it's that quite nice transition
from those who said i never would have thought
i would have dared to volunteer to becoming today's
absolutely core volunteer and without whom the
shop would be difficult to run They're not easy
to run. You know, you have to be upfront about
this. People, Colin, people. People. I know,
it's people. And in some ways, I have to say
running a village shop and, you know, when you
do your time on a committee on a volunteer -run
community organisation. Committee works very
hard. You're working with people that you live
next to and you don't always agree on things,
on the way to do things or what needs doing.
It's a bit like a family business, but without
any of the kissing and making up. You've just
got to acknowledge that people come from different
stances on things and work your way through it.
People don't always see eye to eye, and it's
about creating those spaces where people can
have those discussions and check each other.
And I always find when I've done community work
that people who might be vehemently opposed to
each other on email or social media, when you
put them in a room, it's a very different impact.
So I'd like to see more of that in the world.
Obviously, we'll pick that vibe up when you come
in the shop. Everyone gets along, but I've seen
it. Yeah, I think we should ban texting. It's
not a good media for communicating differences
of opinion. No, no, no. Okay, that's a good point
of feedback. With 70 volunteers. All in all,
congratulations with the work that you've done
and you obviously, there's something there. Any
words of advice for communities who are thinking
about this and they haven't even got together
as a group or they maybe thought about it? a
village meeting and it's come up in conversation
as they often do for 25 years recurring and nobody
does anything about it so any kind of words of
advice from you on on this i think be brave sometimes
you might feel communities aren't with you on
things or you'll never get the volunteers or
you'll never get the support i think it just
takes a kernel of a group of individuals in a
village to believe in something and to be brave
enough to go for it And I think people will follow
when they see the benefits, when they, you know,
the tangible benefits that can come out of a
thriving community organisation in a thriving
village. It's tenfold, a hundredfold, the benefits
that you never anticipated. They do get there.
You just need to have the heart and the bravado
to push it. I'm convinced people will see the
benefits over time and it's just worth going
for it all the time. What does a thriving rural
community look like? And in a way, Bishop Wilton,
is that, I would say, argue. I think that the
thriving bit has got to be continually changing,
evolving, never being stuck in the old ways of
doing things. There's always new ways. I mean,
that's one of the reasons I was quite keen to
move on as chair, because I think you need new
ideas, new voices. to constantly just say, well,
that's not what we've done in the last four or
five years, but actually there might be a new
way of doing it now, a new way of thinking about
it. And I think also by involving different people
at different times and not holding onto it as
though it's my precious baby, you've actually
got to, that brings in a very, a much more eclectic,
a much more inclusive ownership of that organisation,
of that rural community, and it becomes infectious.
And that's what thriving is about. It's about
change, not for the sake of change, but for the
sake of, you know, things have to change to evolve,
to meet the needs of that community as it moves
through time. And I think this, even over the
last five or six years, with the COVID times
and the post -COVID times and the challenges
of IT and social media and all that now, you
know, six years ago, we'd never have realised
how the world is. moving with this new industrial
or technological revolution that we've got and
i think all organizations just need to move without
rural communities rural community organizations
like this but at the heart of what you do you
provide the the old way of connecting as a group
of humans i think that's that's the thing yeah
talking a place to go a place to share and all
the different things that all the diverse group
of people in that village of different ages,
different backgrounds will get from that. Oh,
and keep the village politics out of the shot.
That's the big thing. Is that the golden rule?
Yeah, there is, yeah. One of the codes of conduct,
unwritten codes of conduct, is there are certain
topics you don't talk about. over the counter
because, yeah, every village has got its politics
and, you know, you don't want to have those in
the shop. You have those somewhere else. I couldn't
possibly comment on that one. I think as individuals
you have to challenge yourself all the time about,
well, have I got stuff to learn here? Even though
a lot of the people involved were very, very
experienced and skilled, high -powered individuals
in their own right. I think it's been quite humbling
at times to recognise getting involved in an
adventure like this might do to you as an individual.
I was a doctor for 35, 40 years, and I've seen
some amazing stuff, and I've been lucky enough
to do that, but I've learnt more about people
in some ways in the last five or six years than
I did doing that job. I'm not big enough to say
I always made me a better person, but I've certainly
changed as a person. I'd like to think I'm much
more... understanding of different people's views
how people take and what's important in the world
whatever you put in as a volunteer as a you know
as a committee person or whatever you're going
to get back a hundredfold and that that is something
that until you've done it you just don't realize
thanks very much colin thank you for listening
Today, we've heard that thriving communities
are not built by policymakers or grand ideas
alone. They're built by communities and are made
up of people who give their time, look out for
each other and quietly get on with making things
happen. From Plunkett UK's remarkable national
work and impact to the story of Bishop Wilton
Community Shop and Cafe, there's a common thread
running through all this. Place matters. People
matter. And when communities land on a shared
sense of purpose, remarkable things can happen.
Maybe not in the short term, but certainly over
the long term. Perhaps this is a lesson from
the episode. So thanks for joining us. Until
next time, keep asking yourself what good in
your community looks like. And follow the details
of Blunket UK on our show notes.