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| − | [[File:Mike Piercy Editor.jpg|thumb|Mike Piercy]]
| + | .'''Hallmark February 2024. Lacey Green Village Store.''' Report by Mike Piercy |
| − | [[File:Red Lion Tea Room.jpg|left|thumb|The Red Lion, Bradenham.]]
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| − | '''Hallmark March 2025'''. The '''Red Lion Tea Room'''. One of my friends from the tennis club was extolling the virtues of the Red Lion Café and Tea Room at Bradenham so I arranged to visit and chat to Lisa who runs the place. | |
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| − | Most of you will Know that practically all of Bradenham and its houses is owned by the National Trust. Back in 2017 the Red Lion pub fell vacant and the trust decided they would like to have a tea room in the village. | + | It's been 6 months since the Lacey Green convenience store opened so | thought it was high time that we had a Hallmark article reviewing it. Most of you will remember Clive’s disco shop, this moved to Stokenchurch last winter and the place remained empty for many months. Eventually the builders turned up in early Summer and began ripping out the innards of the building to make room for a bigger shop. We watched with interest as the shop evolved, new ceilings and floors were installed and floor-to-ceiling fridges and shelves arrived.[[File:LG Convenience Stores Jun 24.jpg|left|thumb|link=https://laceygreenhistory.com/w/index.php/File:LG_Convenience_Stores_Jun_24.jpg]]Finally in June, lorry loads of food arrived and the shop opened for business. The new owners had decided to join the Londis franchise but the signage hadn't arrived so the forecourt looked a bit sad with just a temporary banner. Happily that has now been resolved and the proper Londis signs and window dressing have been installed so it looks fully professional. |
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| − | Lisa Hunt has worked in the hospitality industry for years, most recently running a pub in Hurley. She decided that running a tea room would give her a better quality of life and agreed to take on the lease. She converted the building so it now has a kitchen and servery area with two rooms with a dozen dining tables. The ambience is warm and snug with subdued lighting and plenty of room between the tables. There is disabled access but the limitations of the building rule out full disabled toilets.
| + | I dropped in just after Christmas and chatted with the Manager, who likes to be known as Gumma. She runs the store with her two assistants – Harman and Priya. Her family have a long track record in retail and she was previously in a store in Uxbridge. Gumma has a strong sense of community and likes to Know her clients and chat with them – she seemed very popular when I was there! The majority of her customers are local elderly residents but she has also a good passing trade from builders and workmen who are working nearby. |
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| − | The majority of the clientele drive to the café and there is a big car park round the back. They also get lots of walkers as there are many beautiful walks around Bradenham – and dogs are welcome. Though most visitors are of a mature age, young families and children come too.
| + | I had thought that parking might be a problem, but Gumma assures me that she keeps an eye on customers and delivery lorries to ensure that they do not block the pavement for child buggies or children going to and from school. |
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| − | The prime reason for visiting is the quality of the food. Lisa is very proud that all the items on the menu are home made and cooked from scratch. She employs a specialist pastry chef to ensure high quality. The menu features plenty of vegetarian and vegan items and the gluten-intolerant people are also catered for.
| + | Gumma told me that the shop is designed as a convenience store, selling top-ups to the big weekly shop that people may do at Asda or Tesco. he core items are newspapers, bread, milk, eggs etc. They seem to have one of everything and have a very extensive selection of beers and wines at very low prices. She does a few local deliveries to her elderly customers and is thinking about setting up to do daily newspaper deliveries. She is keen to listen to her customers and has a little book where the Staff write down anything they are asked to get in. The recent addition of hot food and hot drinks is in answer to customer requests. |
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| − | In recognition of this the Red Lion was awarded the Best Cafe or Tea Room in Bucks at the Food and Drinks Award last October. Her loyal regulars had entered the competition without Lisa's knowledge and it came as a massive surprise when she won.
| + | Her plans for 2024 include reorganising the shelving and till area to increase the selling space available, enabling her to introduce more promotions. |
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| − | The Cafe is very busy nowadays – even in winter, and Lisa recommends that you book your table in advance – especially at weekends. | + | The store is open from 7am to 10pm 365 days per year so do use it as much as possible and keep this great local resource going. |
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| − | '''Hallmark June 2024'''. '''Speen Farm'''. '''Horses, Hounds and Heroes'''
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| − | All our residents know the Lacey Green Windmill and many visit regularly. However we have another, less obvious, famous site in walking distance of Lacey Green – the Horse Trust in Slad Lane. I’ve not visited for many years so I thought it was high time to put that right, so on a lovely sunny afternoon I met with one of the directors, Jessica Tallman, who showed me around.
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| − | The Trust look after up to 140 equine residents on the site at any one time. 70% of these are retired service horses who have finished their working life and are now enjoying a relaxed life in the country. Many of these are gentle giants who have come from the military or police backgrounds, though there is a sprinkling of horses from other walks of life, such as retirees from the Riding For The Disabled. At the other end of the size scale there are a couple of donkeys and many Shetland Ponies – who are a great hit with the kids – visitors can even groom the ponies on some Sundays.
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| − | Sadly the other 30% of residents come from less happy backgrounds and have been rescued from awful condition and have been taken in by the Trust for respite and recovery. The Trust has 50 staff including in-house vets and equine behaviour professionals to help recovery.
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| − | The site has developed over the 50 years it has been in Speen and now has beautiful grounds, exercise and display areas, stables, museum and the all-important tea room in a beautiful listed barn. The site is open in the afternoons of Thursday to Sunday. You need to buy a ticket online in advance so check the website for details. It is a lovely place to take any visitors you may have this summer.
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| − | On Sunday June 30 the Trust will be holding their “Horses, Hounds and Heroes” event. There will be horse riding displays by the Cavalry and the Met Police, with side shows, live music, food stalls, and even a dog show. Do go along and support their work.[[File:Meet Your Councillors Jun 24.jpg|left|thumb|Shade Adoh and Robert Carrington]]
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| − | '''Hallmark June 2024'''. '''The Buckinghamshire Councillors'''.
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| − | A couple of weeks before Easter our councillors held a ‘surgery’ in Lacey Green Village Hall so I went along to meet them. We are in the Ridgeway West ward of Buckinghamshire Council and three councillors have been elected for our ward. They will be running 4 surgeries this year. Today the surgery was being run by Councillor Shade Adoh and Councillor Robert Carington.
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| − | They did not hold a surgery in Lacey Green last year and as it was still early in the year, word had not got around as much as they would like and very few residents attended. We agreed that more publicity will be needed for the next meeting in Lacey Green at the end of November. I was told that though they are happy to discuss any topic, people come to the face to face meetings to discuss the more complex and delicate issues.
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| − | Each councillor has specific responsibilities within the Council. Councillor Adoh speaks on equality and diversity. She is also on the Council's select committee for adult and social care and the select committee for children and education. She also sits on the Fire Authority executive. Councillor Carington is Vice Chairman of the Transport, Environment and Climate select committee as well as sits on the Audit and Governance Select Committee and the Standards Committees. Both of them have full time jobs outside the council and both have families to look after. They must have very full diaries!
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| − | Councillor Adoh has been a councillor since 2015 and has been through the merger of the old District and County Councils into the unitary authority. We discussed projects that the councillors have worked on in our ward.
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| − | They talked about the role of the North West Chiltern Community Board and the funding it can bring to local charities and good causes. If you look at their website you can find some examples of local projects that they have carried out.
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| − | If you are associated with a local organisation who are trying to raise money then the Community Board should be one of your first contacts.
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| − | They can provide grants of up to £1,000 for small projects, or contributory funding of up to £15,000 for larger projects.
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.Hallmark February 2024. Lacey Green Village Store. Report by Mike Piercy
It's been 6 months since the Lacey Green convenience store opened so | thought it was high time that we had a Hallmark article reviewing it. Most of you will remember Clive’s disco shop, this moved to Stokenchurch last winter and the place remained empty for many months. Eventually the builders turned up in early Summer and began ripping out the innards of the building to make room for a bigger shop. We watched with interest as the shop evolved, new ceilings and floors were installed and floor-to-ceiling fridges and shelves arrived.
Finally in June, lorry loads of food arrived and the shop opened for business. The new owners had decided to join the Londis franchise but the signage hadn't arrived so the forecourt looked a bit sad with just a temporary banner. Happily that has now been resolved and the proper Londis signs and window dressing have been installed so it looks fully professional.
I dropped in just after Christmas and chatted with the Manager, who likes to be known as Gumma. She runs the store with her two assistants – Harman and Priya. Her family have a long track record in retail and she was previously in a store in Uxbridge. Gumma has a strong sense of community and likes to Know her clients and chat with them – she seemed very popular when I was there! The majority of her customers are local elderly residents but she has also a good passing trade from builders and workmen who are working nearby.
I had thought that parking might be a problem, but Gumma assures me that she keeps an eye on customers and delivery lorries to ensure that they do not block the pavement for child buggies or children going to and from school.
Gumma told me that the shop is designed as a convenience store, selling top-ups to the big weekly shop that people may do at Asda or Tesco. he core items are newspapers, bread, milk, eggs etc. They seem to have one of everything and have a very extensive selection of beers and wines at very low prices. She does a few local deliveries to her elderly customers and is thinking about setting up to do daily newspaper deliveries. She is keen to listen to her customers and has a little book where the Staff write down anything they are asked to get in. The recent addition of hot food and hot drinks is in answer to customer requests.
Her plans for 2024 include reorganising the shelving and till area to increase the selling space available, enabling her to introduce more promotions.
The store is open from 7am to 10pm 365 days per year so do use it as much as possible and keep this great local resource going.
