Many of the ladies of Stowe WI enjoyed the annual Sunday Lunch at Marsh Farm, Abbots Bromley during January, lots of laughter and chatter took place. On Tuesday 11th February Thirty one ladies of Stowe WI (and 2 guests) enjoyed their first meeting of 2025 with a talk by Liz Morgan who is the chairperson of Marchington Community Shop. Marchington has around 600 residents and after the old shop and post office shut in January 2010, the residents of the village began the process to open the old shop as a community shop. It was opened on Saturday 27th November 2010, the day after a large snowfall which caused even more shoppers to visit the new shop instead of traveling into nearby Uttoxeter. Individuals were able to be a shareholder by investing £20-00, others lent more substantial sums of money, plus they had a grant and loan. During COVID in 2020 in their 10 year anniversary, they had to change their opening hours and started a delivery service. They won The Queen’s award for volunteering in 2021 for all their work to the community. Liz explained that 20% of their sales are on newspapers, 25% goes on wine and 15% on greetings cards. They have 30 volunteers with only 3 paid employees including a shop manager who works 24hrs a week and a newspaper delivery person! They have had various grants during their 14years and the shop is still thriving. Helen gave the vote of thanks, on what was an interesting talk on how the community shops seems to be the focal point of the village.  New members and visitors are most welcome to attend.

Next Meetings: The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 11th March, when the annual meeting will take place.

New members and guests are always welcome. We meet 2nd Tuesday of month at 7.30pm at Stowe Village Hall. Contact our president Kath Hopcroft on 01889 - 270516, or - Facebook Stowe WI .