Rural Community Business Awards 2024

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The winner is: Cwmdu Inn, Llandeilo

Cwmdu is a pub, shop and post office and plays an important role as a safe and welcoming space allowing people of similar interests an opportunity to meet up and just ‘touch base’.

The knit, stitch and natter group meet twice weekly, the smallholders group meet monthly and, whilst the ladies are knitting and nattering, their husbands meet to discuss all things vintage machinery – tractors, cars and motorbikes! There is no charge for these groups for using the facilities to ensure they are accessible for all.

The monthly ‘Cymdeithas’ meeting discusses ideas for new events and is attended by a diverse range of the community allowing everyone to feel their voice is heard. The biggest example of connecting the community is the annual Beer Festival. Welsh breweries, music acts and food vendors join, the local school runs a children’s entertainment tent, the village hall lends tables and 40 local businesses all generously help with sponsorship of the event.

Well done to our runners-up community businesses:

• Bathford Village Shop & Café
• The Maybush Inn, Great Oakley

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The winner is: Chopwell Regeneration Group

Following community consultation in 2023, CRG opened The Regeneration Shop in March 2024. It is a place for residents to bring electrical, digital, mechanical items and clothing items for repair, and buy low-cost repaired items and pre-loved clothes. All services promote sustainability, recyclability and reusability to extend the lifecycles of products owned by people in the community.

Providing access to low-cost goods, clothes and repairs also helps to support people experiencing poverty. Working with design experts from Northumbria University, the shop has embedded sustainable principles into the design and services offered. The enterprise has enabled opportunities for volunteering, job creation and skills development, and opportunities for vocational training.

Since the shop opened in April there have been 14 workshops for residents to learn new skills including clothes alterations, upcycling classes, ‘fix-it’ workshops and an eight-week work experience placement for a 16-year-old. One volunteer is a carer for his wife and he comes to repair items every week to “feel useful” and share his technical expertise.

Well done to our runners-up community businesses:

• The White Swan at Gressenhall
• The Dog Inn, Belthorn

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The winner is: OASIS Community Centre & Garden

This business was created 12 years ago when a derelict building and abandoned field were transformed. The community was disadvantaged and demoralised when the initiative started.

It has now come together with renewed pride and, each day, celebrates the skills and talents and creativity of the community. With over 35 projects run, there are opportunities for everyone, regardless of gender, race, sexuality or age.

Space is rented to groups with skills-based activities and courses in gardening, horticulture, cooking, floristry, puppetry, circus skills and music making, and projects which give childcare, health and wellbeing support, care of the elderly, befriending, advice and support and working directly with children with mental health and disability. Over 8,000 people and families have received food and toiletries, clothing and gifts from Operation Oasis. As many as 2,000 people come together for festival and celebration days.

Well done to our runners-up community businesses:

• Drylswyn Community Shop
• The Auctioneer Arms, Caverswall

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The winner is: Bledington Community Shop & Café

From opening in 2019, Bledington Community Shop & Café had a vision to utilise local trades and craftspeople. The shop’s product range has been developed significantly over time, but the focus has always been on ‘keeping it local’ and currently 76% of suppliers are from the local area including bread, eggs, meat, honey, chocolates and coffee. The shop has created its own products and branding, including gins, ales, whisky, mugs, cushions, aprons and teatowels.

Bledington Gins was the first of these and the team worked closely with Woods Brothers Distillery in Oxfordshire to create a botanical recipe using the rare Bledington Lady’s Finger apple and Bledington-grown rosemary. The shop works closely with key local suppliers to put together a Christmas ordering service and, once a year, to celebrate its birthday, the shop invites local producers to donate a prize for the draw. Any surplus from the business is reinvested into village projects, with donations to the Bledington and Foscot Community Association totalling £8,500.

Well done to our runners-up community businesses: 

• Smarden Community Store
• Huby & Sutton Community Shop

The winner is: Bathford Village Shop & Café

This community-owned village shop and café is located in an ancient village near Bath. It provides much more than the typical convenience store. Free services include WiFi, a drinking water station for both humans and dogs, an ATM, and a library of board games, jigsaw puzzles, and books that residents can borrow at no cost. The shop doubles as a tourist information centre. The setting is a popular gathering place for local groups, including the Crochet and Craft Group, a Mahjong group, a supper club and a lunch buffet.

The shop has also served as a Community Warm Space during the last two winters. Additional services include dry cleaning and a free home delivery. In support of local businesses, the shop features a local artists’ corner, providing a platform for residents to launch and test their ideas. The shop and café also accommodates people with mental health issues, young individuals exploring work opportunities, and participants in the Duke of Edinburgh Award and school work experience programmes.

Well done to our runners-up community businesses:

• Tafarn yr Heliwr, Nefyn
• Uig Community Co-operative

The winner is: Ashton Hayes Community Hub (AHCL)

There has been a long, 11-year battle with owners and developers to protect the only village pub, The Golden Lion, with its 250-year-old history, from development and loss to the community. Purchase was completed in June 2024. A public meeting in 2024 attracted 400 people and a Community Share offer has raised £215,000. The group has also been granted £250,000 from the Community Ownership Fund.

The ethos is to create a pub and hub with accessibility to all. The design includes a purpose-built IT hub to allow those with limited access to the internet a regular location to use for access and support. There are plans to install renewable energy sources, such as solar panels and EV charging points and promoting local suppliers, to achieve environmental sustainability goals. The pub aims to create jobs, especially for local young people, providing valuable work experience within the community.

Well done to our runners-up community groups:

• The Hop Pole, Limpley Stoke
• The Samson Inn, Gilsland

Sponsored by:

The winner is: Naomi Dunbar, Newton Stewart Initiative

Naomi joined as a part-time youth worker last year, organising and running weekly youth drop-in sessions as well detached youth work with 100 young people. Naomi threw herself into the role with passion, dedication and enthusiasm. During her gap year, she has taken on a part-time admin role, developing skills such as event management. She has worked with a NSI trustee to organise and develop Happy Daze, a fortnightly drop-in for older residents to reminisce together.

Together they have taken this group into the wider community at day centres and sheltered accommodation. There is great appreciation for the effort, drive and initiative that Naomi shows to making a difference in young people’s lives and the wider community.

Well done to our highly-commended finalists:

• Ned Holdsworth, Bathford Village Shop & Café
• Charley Thorpe, The Maybush Inn, Great Oakley
• Jake Waugh, Kenmuir Arms Hotel

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The winner is: Rebecca Gabzdyl, East Boldre Community Store

Rebecca has worked tirelessly to establish a community shop in East Boldre since 2019. Undaunted by initial rejections of expanding the village hall and buying the existing shop, she found the energy to rally a team for a third attempt when the former Baptist Chapel came onto the market in August 2022. Chapel Stores finally opened in February 2024. Always ready to tackle new challenges, Rebecca has turned her hand to drafting planning applications, specifying the schedule of building works, and project-managing multiple building contractors, grant applications, communications and website development.

Feedback on the shop’s product offering has been very positive – largely due to research, time and networking Rebecca invested into product and supplier selection. She has united local residents behind the community shop cause, keeps a positive and pragmatic attitude, and never seeks out personal recognition for the thousands of hours she has volunteered.

Well done to our runners-up community businesses:

• Doreen Aitken, The White Swan at Gressenhall
• Kelly Beniston, Smarden Community Store