Hambledon Village Shop now has super fast wi-fi, available free to customers.
Wi-fi speeds of up to 37mbps are available in the shop and the wi-fi extends to all of the outside cafe tables and the picnic tables, though your mileage may vary.
So grab a coffee, take a seat and pretend you’re doing really important work.
On a balmy evening in December around 40 guests – all involved in Hambledon Village Shop in some way – gathered at the village hall wearing Christmas decorations and looking very festive. It was lovely to get together to meet old friends, make some new ones and to thank everyone for contributing so much to the shop.
The team who’d organised the village party the previous weekend had beautifully decorated the village hall with ivy garlands and fairy lights all round the walls and an enormous Christmas tree twinkling away in the corner. In true Blue Peter fashion, the table decorations were made from recycled bottles and jam jars with a little hand-decorated ‘thank you’ token and raffle ticket on each place setting.
The evening kicked off with drinks and chat before tucking into beef and vegetable Malaysian-style curries with rice and breads made by our Chef du Jour, Jon Petersen, followed by chocolate torte and lemon cheesecake desserts from Cook (worth noting that if you’re running a community event they offer a discount of 30%, click here to find out more). Thanks go to the commis chefs who helped chop all that veg!
The next stage of refurbishing the Village Shop will take place in February. There will be some disruption but most services will continue to be avaliable.
Between Monday 1st February and Monday 22nd February, some new shelving will be installed, the shop counter and Post Office counters will be relocated and new flooring will be installed. All work is planned to be completed by Monday 22nd February.
Throughout this period Newspapers will be available as normal as will bread and milk and some dried goods. The farm shop will operate as normal. The delicatessen and cafe will be operating from a catering van in the shop driveway.
During the week Monday 8th February to Sunday 14th February the Post Office will be closed for a period of 3 days while the new flooring is installed, exact days of the Post Office closure will be provided at a later date.
Jo, the shop staff and the shop volunteers will be doing everything they can to keep the shop running as close to normal as possible during this period, please reward them with your custom.
In the New Year there will be some changes in the Hambledon Village Shop opening hours. From 1st of January 2016 until the end of March 2016 the shop will be closing at 3pm on Saturdays and 2pm on Sundays.
Over the festive period the Village Shop will be opening as follows:
Christmas Eve: 8:45am to 4pm
25th, 26th, 27th and 28th December: Closed
29th, 30th and 31st December: 9am to 12pm
New Years Day: Closed
A major cut of trees close to power lines was completed this year by Scottish and Southern Energy in an effort to reduce the frequency of electricity supply disruption to Hambledon.
SSE has also upgraded and refurbished power lines into the village and promised better communications in the event of outages.
Nevertheless, it is wise to take precautions in a rural area that has suffered from extensive power failures in recent years, usually caused by trees and branches falling onto cables during high winds.
SSE has provided the Parish Council with a quantity of telephones that do not require a power supply to work, wind-up radios, battery-operated magnetic lamps, safety lightsticks, compact foil blankets and heat packs for warming cold hands.
If you, or someone you know, would benefit from any of these items they are available free for collection from the village shop.
It is important to remember that many modern phones require power to operate so a stand-by phone that simply requires a connection to the telephone line is an essential.
Stock up on batteries for torches and radios.
In extreme weather electricity and telephone lines may fail as may mobile phone networks. Snow or fallen trees can isolate the village. Although such an outcome is rare it has happened. The Parish Council has an emergency plan in place to help cope with such an event.
It is worth remembering that the phone kiosk at the village shop will continue to work in a power failure. The pay phone no longer accepts coins but you can dial 999 for free. You can also dial 100 for the operator to make reverse charge calls.
If you, or someone you know, may be considered vulnerable during a power cut, you can register with SSE’s Priority Services Register on 0800 294 3259. There is a leaflet in the shop explaining this service.
The following telephone numbers and addresses should be kept handy.
SSE – Scottish and Southern Energy (power cuts and emergencies): 0800 072 7282.
Surrey County Council (for on-line updates and advice): www.surreycc.gov.uk/winter.
Latest travel information: https://twitter.com/SurreyTravel
Waverley Borough Council: For general information, refuse collections etc, go to www.waverley.gov.uk adding the word weather to the search bar if your inquiry relates to this issue. Also, for latest news and emergency updates from the borough go to www.twitter.com/waverleybc
Radio updates will be broadcast on BBC Surrey on 104.6FM and on Eagle on 96.4FM
Hambledon village website will also carry updates: www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk
In the village, the Hambledon Emergency Team is:
Stewart Payne – 07831 393561, Tim Coleman – 07838 763767, and Nick Watson – 07770 553686
In the event of severe disruption and communication failure the emergency team will be on hand around the village, centred at the village shop.
The Coffee Morning held last Saturday (26th September) at Hambledon Village Shop in aid of MacMillan raised £630, a substantial increase on last years total of £410. Congratulations to the organisers Christie McIntyre, Eliza Weller and Ellie Kitt and thanks to all who gave and purchased cake.
So far MacMillan have raised just over £4.5m from the various Coffee Mornings held around the country and are aiming to beat last years total of £25m.
http://coffee.macmillan.org.uk
The annual MacMillian Coffee morning held at the Village Shop by Christie McIntyre and her friends will take place tomorrow (Saturday 26th) morning from 9am. The girls have been baking up a storm and would love you to come and support this worthy cause. Last year they raised over £400 for MacMillian and they are keen to beat that this year.
A few more details can be found here: http://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/events/6drnw03j
