News

The Limpley Spokes serenaded the volunteers with some fantastic cover hits including our very own signature song "At the Hop Pole". Charlie and Hannah joined the band as our volunteers, fortified with pints of Hoppie and Jenny's delicious canapes, boogied the night away.

GRAND OPENING this Saturday 25th January from 4pm! Make sure you visit the new Hop Pole website at hoppoleinn.uk to subscribe to the newsletter for all the latest news, to browse their tempting menus and beers, and to make reservations. The whole team at Hop Pole HQ could not be more thrilled and grateful that we made it. Thank you again to the whole community for coming together to make this happen. We should all feel incredibly proud. See you at the bar on Saturday. Cheers!

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!

The incredible and heartwarming story of skilled lime plasterer, Daahir Mohamed, using his valuable skills at the Hop Pole and training a team of refugees has been broadcast by ITV West Country. You can watch the clip by clicking here . Thank you to everyone involved for your brilliant work and for spreading the word.

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.