We loved having you all round in August so much that we're throwing open our doors again on the afternoon of Sunday 22nd September, 3pm - 6pm, for our Late Summer Shindig. There will be BBQ, drinks and music from The Convulsions - a band that specifically supports community pubs like The Hop Pole - so it should be a fantastic afternoon. We have taken on board a lot of feedback from our August event and have made some logical tweaks to the set up for this September event. If you are able to come and help us, we are looking for volunteers to cover hourly shifts across the following stations: Bar – drink servers Barbecue – chefs and servers Front of house – meet and greeter Payment – processing both cash and card payments Time slots will be: 3pm - 4pm 4pm - 5pm 5pm - 6pm Simply let Gemma Painter know what role and time(s) you plus any family and friends would like to do, please, by emailing her on marblemoth@hotmail.com and we'll confirm back to you as soon as we can. As before, there will be a drink of your choice at the bar to thank you for your kindness and generosity. We hope to hear from you and with your help we'll make it another memorable and fun event!

The Annual General Meeting of 
Limpley Stoke Community Benefit Society Limited 
will be held at 7pm on Wednesday, 18th September 2024 at 
Freshford Village Memorial Hall, Freshford Lane, Freshford, BA2 7UR 
 Agenda
: ⁠Apologies 
Approval of minutes from previous AGM 
Presentation of accounts
 Building work update Funding update Tenancy update
 Reopening date Board election
 AOB 

All are welcome but only shareholders are eligible to vote. 

To assist with catering, if you expect to come to the meeting, please RSVP to replycbs@gmail.com which is also the address for sending your apologies if you are a shareholder and cannot attend. Documents presented and minutes will later be made available on our website. 

30th August 2024 Limpley Stoke Creative Film Club : date change to accommodate AGM A big thank you to the Limpley Stoke Creative Film Club who kindly moved the date of their first film screening of the season to resolve a clash of dates with our AGM. We really appreciate it. The first film of their new season is 'Tokyo Story' - one of the great films of cinema history from Japanese film director Yasujirō Ozu. It will be shown at the Limpley Stoke village Hall on Tuesday 17th September, with the doors opening at 7pm for 7:30pm start. To find out more please visit limpleystoke.com/activities-clubs . We hope that you can make the new date and thank you again for your understanding. Hop Pole Summer Extravaganza : Oh what a night! Well THAT was fun! A fantastic night of high community spirit and generous fundraising was had by all at our August Summer Party. Hundreds of you turned up to admire all of the hard work to date on our beloved pub, toast its progress with a drink or two, put your hands in your pockets to raise more vital funds to complete the project and enjoy the first of many more happy nights in the pub garden. We have so many thank yous to give out: thank you to all of the organisers and volunteers of the event, auction, raffle and catering for all their hard work. thank you to everyone who bid on our auction items or bought raffle tickets. Your continued generosity is awe-inspiring and extraordinary. thank you to everyone who very generously donated auction and raffle prizes. We have lots of very happy winners thanks to your support! thank you to the legendary Limpley Strokes for getting the party rocking. thank you to the weather for holding out until precisely 9:20pm just as the last party people left. Phew! And we are delighted to reveal that the auction evening raised in excess of £34,000 including matched funding which exceeded all of our expectations. This will make a huge difference and leaves us with just £25,000 to go! Who's up for another one? Book out Sunday 22nd September We have another date for your diary! We loved having you all round so much that we're throwing open our doors again on the afternoon of Sunday 22nd September, 3pm - 6pm , for our Late Summer Shindig with food, drinks and music from The Convulsions - a band that specifically supports community pubs like The Hop Pole. More details will follow soon so please keep your eyes on Instagram and Facebook, newsletters and also the village 'Candy Boards' for additional info and timings. It's sure to be another corker!

Let's start warming up the pub with our summer party! The team at the Top Pole have been doing a magnificent job of hosting a monthly toe-tapping, glass-chinking social while the Hop Pole renovations continue. Our huge thanks to everyone who has made that happen and for the donations they have made towards our campaign. 

Drum roll please....
 We are nearing the moment to bring the party back to the Hop Pole! To break us in gently we have planned a couple of events to get you all back inside the pub, spend quality time with your friends and neighbours, and raise a few more vital funds towards the final stages of the work. It will also be the perfect opportunity to see how far the building work has progressed and understand how it's going to look at reopening. 

The first event will be at the Hop Pole on Friday 23rd August, 6:00 - 9:30pm , with a BBQ and pay bar. Excitingly we will be calling for any final bids on a selection of auction items from 7:15pm followed by the raffle. Guests will be able to buy more raffle tickets on the night. Please bring cash as well as cards (with small change being much appreciated) and please note that seating will be limited so the evening will be mostly standing.

 Volunteers needed for the event
 We'll need volunteers for the event to help us with food prep ahead of the event and then with serving attendees on the night, so if you are up for a fun night and are happy to help out, please sign up here selecting as many slots as you are able to offer! Volunteers will receive an email nearer the date as a reminder. If your plans change and you can no longer help, please contact us by clicking the contact button on the sheet. THANK YOU!

 Put the date in your diary : Friday 23rd August 
We really hope to see lots of you there and may this be the first of many memorable nights in our beloved Hop Pole! Summer fundraising auction - get your bids in! To help reach our funding target, we are holding a glittering summer auction and raffle. Items offer include holidays in luxury villas in Marbella, Fowey and the Black Forest, private chefs, garden consultations, signed rugby shirts, theatre tickets and much more. You can see all of our amazing auction items, and place your bids here . Place your bid by clicking the 'Make a bid' button which emails us. Nine of the items will then go into a LIVE auction which will take place at our Summer Extravaganza on the 23rd August!

 As if that isn't enough, we will also be drawing the raffle at the party. Tickets can be bought at The Galleries in Freshford, from our volunteers who will be selling door to door throughout the community and at the party. You can also email limpleystokecbs@gmail.com for other ways to buy raffle tickets. All prizes are listed on our website here , so please take a look to whet your appetite and buy your tickets soon. Thank you! Another date for your diary: Sunday 22nd September While you have your diaries to hand, please also mark out the afternoon of Sunday 22nd September for our second Hop Pole warm-up party! More details on this event will follow, but there will be food, drink and a live band, so we look forward to seeing you all then.

The final £50,000... The Hop Pole Inn project is on time and under budget but we still need more money to help us reopen our community pub in October 2024. We are £100k short but we do have almost £50k in matched funding in place so for every £100 you give, we will raise £200 towards our target. Please help us by: Buying more shares by clicking here Bidding for items in our fantastic auction by clicking here Buying a raffle ticket for the chance to win one of our great prizes shown here As a recap, over the last three years our small team have: Negotiated a fair price to buy the pub from some notoriously tough sellers Successfully applied for three sets of planning and listed building consents Brought the community together with 700+ people contributing financially and 150 volunteering their time and expertise Scrounged generous donations and discounts on materials Tightly project managed the refurbishment so that the total cost (including purchase) will be less than the £1,300k forecast in July 2022 Raised £330,000 from grant-giving bodies Raised almost £750,000 in two share issues Obtained £50,000 of interest-free loans Scrounged exciting items for our silent and live auction Started advertising for tenants and we already have some very promising candidates We are very close to reopening the Hop Pole Inn in October 2024 but we can’t get there without your help. Please dig deep and remember – every little helps. Thank you! Building progress update: it's coming along beautifully! Work on the pub continues at an impressive pace and we now have the shells for the new kitchen, bar and toilet block in place. Big thanks to our volunteer gardeners too, led by the brilliant Rod, who have started seeding the lawn and getting it ready for our summer events. Don't forget you have the chance to see all of this progress in person on one of our 'Sneak a Peek Tours' so please read below for more details on how to book yourself onto one of those. Sneak a Peek Tours : places booking up fast We're pleased to let you know that we've released more dates for the very popular ‘Sneak a Peek Tours’ of the Hop Pole. The insightful tours give you the perfect opportunity to see the current transformation of the pub, as it is happening, and ask any questions. The dates always fill up quickly so if you'd like to take a tour please click here to book your place/s . We look forward to welcoming you to the 'almost finished' pub! Summer fundraising auction - let's start the bidding! To help reach our funding target, we are holding a glittering summer auction and raffle. Our volunteer auction team have been hard at work scrounging some fantastic auction items and raffle prizes including holidays in luxury villas in Marbella, Fowey (see stunning photo below) and the Black Forest, private chefs, theatre tickets and much more. You can see all of our amazing auction items and place your bids here . You can place a silent bid on an auction item by clicking the 'Make a bid' button which emails us. Eight of the items will then go into a LIVE auction to be held at the Hop Pole on the 23rd August. Please feel free to share the auction web page with friends and family - there is something for everyone! We are also holding a raffle with a selection of fantastic prizes to be won. Tickets can be bought at The Galleries in Freshford, at the Top Pole pop-up pub and from our volunteers who will be selling door to door throughout the community. All prizes are listed on our website here, so please take a look to whet your appetite and buy your tickets soon. Thank you! Our search for a tenant is underway! As we mentioned in our May newsletter, we have started our search for an entrepreneurial tenant who is looking for the dream job of running a much-loved pub in a beautiful Wiltshire village. The vacancy is attracting good interest from potential tenants, but our deadline isn't until Friday 19th July so there is still time to express and interest and be shown around. It is a unique and exciting opportunity for the right person/people, so please contact us if you're interested or help us to spread the word. The details are: Opportunity to build your own successful food & drink business in a fully renovated 15th Century Inn Building fully renovated and extended to modern standards with new electrical and plumbing systems, new commercial kitchen and toilet block Covers: 40/60 Internal/external Free of tie Newly renovated two-bedroom flat Located in highly sought after village of Limpley Stoke, five miles from Bath Community owned with hundreds of friendly supporters Proximity to canal and many popular walking and cycling routes Available from October 2024 Rent: Highly competitive TBD If you’re interested in having a look around or just want to ask some questions, please email applylscbs@gmail.com . Thank you. Do you have any free storage space that we could use? To safely house all of the kit, furnishings, kitchen and garden equipment until closer to the reopening date,we are seeking free storage space of about 160sqft. If anyone can help us with this request we would be hugely grateful - anything to keep our costs to an absolute minimum. If you can help please contact us on limpleystokecbs@gmail.com . Thank you. Watch out for us on ITV local news next week Our thanks go to local ITV newsreader and journalist Victoria Davies who interviewed the team again this week to find out more about our progress and understand some of the detailed processes carried out by our building team. Keep your eyes on our Instagram feed for updates on when it airs! Raise a glass at the Top Pole Pop-up pub! This month's 'Top Pole' pop-up pub night will take place on Friday 19th July at the Limpley Stoke Village Hall, with food, drinks and live music. On the menu is Korean Chicken (£8), with veggie alternative, followed by French apple tart (£3), with all proceeds going to the Hop Pole campaign! As always, please email orlamorrish@gmail.com with your order or with any queries. Thank you for your support and enjoy the evening.

Following the huge popularity of our hard hat tours last year, we’re delighted to offer a handful of ‘Sneak a Peek Tours’ to see the current transformation of the pub, as it is happening. This is your chance to see how hard the team have been working to repair and renovate the pub. It’s YOUR pub so come and have a nose around. We have weekend dates throughout the summer, so book your place (or places if there is a group of you) by clicking here.

Opportunity to build your own successful food and drink business, in a fully renovated 15th Century Inn in a beautiful village near Bath. Building fully renovated and extended to modern energy efficiency standards with new electrical and plumbing systems and a fully fitted-out commercial kitchen and toilet block Covers: 40/60 Internal/external Free of tie Newly renovated two-bedroom flat Located in highly sought after village of Limpley Stoke, five miles from Bath Community-owned with hundreds of friendly supporters Proximity to canal and many popular walking and cycling routes Available from October 2024 Rent: Highly competitive TBD Deadline for expressions of interest: 19th July 2024 Please explore this website for more information about the Hop Pole project. If you have any questions and/or are interested in having a look around, please email applylscbs@gmail.com . We'd love to hear from you!

Building progress update: we're getting there! Work on the pub continues at an impressive rate. Recent progress includes pouring the concrete slab for the extensions with work beginning on building the extensions now. This will start with the loo block first which will hopefully mean we can have some kind of summer pop-up in the pub garden, which is currently being prepared so that our faithful gardeners can seed the new lawn. As always there are plenty of opportunities for all of you to get involved by volunteering your time on any of the many tasks on our list, such as ongoing prep to the first floor flat. Please drop us a line to volunteers@savethehoppole.org if you'd like to be added to our volunteer list. Thank you! Suppliers generously step up to the plate We're delighted to have received sponsorship of £1,500 from Croft Building and Conservation who purchased some materials for the project. Ollie Chance MD said he was "proud to support such an important and inspiring community project that puts an historic building back at the heart of the community” . In addition, Matt Fairweather of Omnie Underfloor Heating and Core Conservation have provided materials and their time at a substantially discounted price, so our heartfelt thanks to them. We are still looking for materials and contractors to help us get the project completed for less, so if you can help in any way please let us know and do share news of our progress with anyone who wants to get involved. Volunteers: a call to action! So far the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), Bristol Heritage Skills, FCBStudios and many other supporters have given us 43 volunteer labour days on the interior of the building, and repairing and preparation for replastering. We expect that it will take the same again to complete the interior plastering so please let us know if you can help and we’ll add you to our list. Fundraising update: please keep your investments coming in! We still need the final chunk of funding if we are to finish the building works, garden and interior. Rest assured that every penny donated is spent wisely and efficiently, and will go a long way towards reopening our pub in October of this year as a sustainable business and a thriving hub. With this in mind we have extended the share offer to the end of this year, to make it as easy as possible for you to support us. Thank you for ALL the investment to date and if you would like to buy shares please click here . Big thanks to FLiSCA! We’re thrilled to report that we have received a very generous grant of £2,500 from FLiSCA. This will be spent on the refurbishment of the ground floor community room which will be made available for local groups and societies when not in use by the pub. Many thanks to FLiSCA. Sneak a Peek Tours: places booking up fast! Our latest round of ‘Sneak a Peek Tours’ are booking up fast so grab your place now to see the current transformation of the pub, as it is happening. A few of the tours have already take place with visitors loving the insightful opportunity to understand more about this important project. This is your chance to see how hard the team have been working to repair and renovate the pub. To book your place (or places if there is a group of you) please click here . Summer fundraising auction - let's start the bidding! Our volunteer auction team are doing a brilliant job of gathering together a list of sparkling auction items for you to bid for, all in aid of the campaign of course. Look out for notifications from us about tickets for events that might be happening imminently. One such event is the unmissable ‘Nocturne Live’ at Blenheim Palace on Thursday 13th June. Details are as follows so please send us your bids to be in with a chance of securing the four tickets: Four prime spot seats for this live music experience under the stars featuring Chaka Khan, Sister Sledge and The Fatback Band Thursday 13th June, evening At Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, OX20 1PP More info at nocturnelive.com Bidding starts at £200 for the four tickets Please call Heather Coombe on 07968953384 with your bids. Winning bidder will be notified by Friday 7th June A huge thank you to the very kind donors and thank you in advance for your generous bids. Let's start the bidding. THANK YOU! Spotlight on a supporter: Robin and Karen Noad This project is all about the wider community coming together to make this happen for us now and for years to come. The many personal interactions we have had with supporters have been heartwarming, with people sharing their stories of the pub over the years. So this month, we want to shine a spotlight on a couple of our shareholders: Robin and Karen Noad. This is their story… Robin was born in Bath. He was first introduced to The Hop Pole by his sister and brother-in-law in the late 1970's, when they enjoyed drinks and delicious meals there with his widowed mum and younger brother. They particularly loved the cosy and peaceful ambiance of the pub. Karen was born in Oklahoma USA. She came to the UK in 1987 and moved to Bath in 1988. Robin and Karen met at St Philip's Church in Bath - sharing immigration horror stories and singing in a musical together. Eventually, Robin asked Karen for a drink around Christmas 1990. He was about to be in the Church Pantomime so would be very busy in early January, so he rang her up in late Dec 1990 to get a date for that drink. Karen had a flat in Monkton Combe at the time, so Robin drove her the short distance to his favourite pub - the Hop Pole! They chatted for hours and found so many common experiences, even though they had grown up on opposite sides of the Atlantic. There followed many more visits to the Hop Pole getting better acquainted. Subsequently they were engaged in the Pump Room in Bath the following year and married on 28 March 1992 at St Philip's Church, Bath! In 1998 they moved to Northumberland with Robin's job and from there to Oklahoma in Feb 2000. They rented out their house in Bath during that whole period, and so they were able to retire back our to that house in Bath in Dec 2019. They're so looking forward to seeing The Hop Pole flourish again and are so glad to be a small part of making that a reality. Thank you for years of support, Robin and Karen. We can't wait to welcome you back again! Raise a glass at the Top Pole Pop-up pub! We’re pleased to say that the 'Top Pole' pop-up pub will take place on Friday 21st June at the Limpley Stoke Village Hall. On the menu is Hungarian Chicken Goulash, with veggie alternative, followed by a strawberry dessert, with all proceeds going to the Hop Pole campaign! As always, please email orlamorrish@gmail.com with your order or with any queries. Thank you for your support and enjoy the event.

Let's open the bidding for these brilliant events! As part of our ongoing fundraising to save our beloved Hop Pole, we have a trusty team of volunteers hard at work gathering items for our summer auction. Two of those items are tickets for events happening very soon so we want to give you the chance to bid on them NOW. The items are:

 Lot 1 : Two tickets for Bath vs Northampton Rugby THIS WEEKEND Final game of the season Saturday 18th May, 3pm At Bath Rugby, The Recreation Ground, Bath BA2 4DS Two south stand tickets, under cover Please call Heather Coombe on 07968953384 with your bids. Winning bidder will be notified on Thursday 16th May Lot 2 : Four prime spot seats for Nocturne Live concert A live music experience under the stars featuring Chaka Khan, Sister Sledge and The Fatback Band Thursday 13th June, evening At Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, OX20 1PP More info at nocturnelive.com Bidding starts at £200 for the four tickets Please call Heather Coombe on 07968953384 with your bids. Winning bidder will be notified on Friday 31st May All proceeds will be going to the campaign to save the Hop Pole so please dig deep! A huge thank you to the very kind donors and thank you in advance for your generous bids. Let's start the bidding - THANK YOU!

The finish line is so close now : so how do we cross it? After more than two years of forward planning, hard graft, essential fundraising and steadfast determination, we are finally getting to the business end of this inspiring project and the end goal is almost in sight. To call it a team effort would be underplaying the huge numbers of skilled workers, volunteers, suppliers and supporters who have got us to this point. We are all in this together and we're winning! Thank you to each and everyone of you. In a nutshell, this is our current position: We have raised the minimum amount of money needed to secure the building and get the lights on however we still need to raise funds to ensure the building is capable of serving as a viable platform for a thriving business. Please keep your investments coming in here - every penny is carefully allocated and much appreciated. Our final reopening plan is vitally dependent on volunteers. Volunteers to help us at every step of the way from rebuilding the pub to nurturing the garden to repainting the sign. If you are not yet on our volunteers list and would like to offer your time please contact us at 
volunteers@savethehoppole.org We are also ramping up our requests for donated items. We have a list of 'Materials needed' on our website, so if you can donate any of those items or know any supplier who would be willing to give us those items, please let us know at volunteers@savethehoppole.org . Thank you for any help you can offer! Fantastic response to our latest ITV news story We made the news again! On Sunday 3rd March the local ITV crew came to the Hop Pole to chat to the team about our drive for donations and volunteers. The feature aired that evening generating an instant, positive response with immediate pledges of goods and building materials. Huge thanks to Limpley Stoke's own Victoria Davies at ITV West Country for the ongoing interest and support for our campaign. You can see Simon & James talking through the project here . We think this new-found fame is suiting them! Building progress is steaming along Building progress continues at a pace with regular teams of experts and volunteers on site laying pipes, putting down boards, installing the electrics and so on. In a few weeks we'll continue with the garden planning, starting with the lawn being sown in April, which is encouraging news. To help you visualise the final pub as well as we can, we're excited to be able to share with you the final floor plan showing the newly positioned bar, the extensive seating areas, improved toilet block and plans for the outdoor terrace. You can see the floor plan by clicking here and scrolling through the browser version of our newsletter . Your ongoing help, funding and donations will make this plan a reality so please continue to dig deep as we head towards the finishing line! New video telling the story of our wonderful community We are incredibly fortunate to have so many willing and talented people in our community who have been able to bring their unique skills to the project. The latest of these is local filmmaker Alan Wright who has very generously taken his time to put together this wonderful film telling the story of our community and the background behind the Hop Pole campaign. In Alan's words: 'It is exactly two years since I became Director of Trowbridge Town Hall Trust with the daunting task of supervising a £10million capital project to restore the building's architectural legacy while, at the same time, transforming it into an environmentally friendly incubator for creative talent that will provide an exemplar throughout the south-west. When I moved to Freshford/Limpley Stoke last year, I was naturally fascinated by The Hop Pole project, especially as the ethos behind its revival was to provide a hub for the community and add to the villages' determination to bring about social cohesion. As a former television producer, I couldn't resist making a small contribution towards The Hope Pole appeal by creating a video which, I sincerely hope, will help convey the community message and wider story of this vital lifeline in the village.' You can see the video by clicking here . Please feel free to share it. Auction of Promises : auction items wanted! To help raise some extra funds we're planning to organise an Auction of Promises in the summer. Details of how this auction will run will be revealed nearer the time, but right now we are looking for donations, please! Anything is most welcome so please let us know if you have any items that we can add to the catalogue. Perfect examples might be: Holiday accommodation Tickets to an event/event ⁠A fun or unique experience ⁠Professional or business support Gardening or home interior design consultancy If you have anything you’d be prepared to donate or if you would like to join the very-newly-formed (and great fun) Auction of Promises team (which currently comprises Sally Gupta, Jane Trounce and Heather Coombe so far) please contact Heather Coombe at helloheth@hotmail.com . Thank you! Raise a glass at the Top Pole pop-up pub This month's Top Pole pop-up pub takes place on Friday 19th April, 6:30pm - 10pm at the Limpley Stoke Village Hall. As always, it promises to be a great night with food and drinks (cash and card) and live music. This month's menu is steak, kidney and mushroom pie or a veggie option (both £8) followed by chocolate cinnamon gateau (£3), so please email your choice to orlamorrish@gmail.com by 17th April if you'd like food. All profits are generously donated to the Hop Pole campaign and the events are always a lively, fun evening so we hope to see you there!