Vicar's View

30 years of the Pop-in-Shop  

In his annual report in 1995, the then vicar, Michael Morphy, wrote ‘Who would have guessed that we would now have a shop on Kershaw? The Pop-in-Shop has been a wonderful innovation’ and went on to write about the good it was already doing within the parish. The shop had opened on 5th February and so celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this month. 

Margaret Mumford had for a while been holding sales of second-hand clothes in one of the community rooms on the estate. She had been looking enviously at the empty shop next to Hares Supermarket. The Council, who then owned the whole block, had started allowing charities to use empty shop units free of rent, all the while no-one else wanted them. Vikki Egerton, who for many years did all the legal side of the shop, negotiated a lease from the Council for the vacant No.9 Kershaw Crescent. Margaret gathered a group of helpers and the Pop-in-Shop opened. It was an immediate success in providing not only cheap second-hand clothes but an increasing range of goods to the local community. Profits were used to provide further assistance to those in need. The vicar handled such requests for help as part of his pastoral work in the parish.

Inevitably there have been many challenges over the years. After some 18 months, the owner of the supermarket made an offer to the Council to lease the unit. The Council was sympathetic to our work but the only way we could retain the shop was to outbid the offer already on the table. Thus from then on until 2019 we had to pay a commercial rent for the shop, but our takings were good and we could afford it. A year later the Council sold the whole block to the owner of the supermarket, and Vikki asked that we might be granted a long lease on our unit that would be binding on the new owner. She came away with a 20 year lease. Eventually, an extension to the supermarket was agreed by building out across the wide pavement in front of the shops, but because of the lie of the land this could only be done using numbers 5, 7 and 9 Kershaw Cresent. Number 3 was separated off as a separate shop once more and we moved from number 9 to number 3 during third week in June 2001. Unfortunately, it was a bit like working on a building site whilst the extension was built, but once finished we had an ideal location right next to the supermarket entrance and with our window display in full view of everyone coming down the steps. 

Big changes happened in 2005. Under the then vicar Betty Pedley a committee was formed, a constitution written and agreed by the Parochial Church Council. We opened our own bank account, I joined the team as secretary and treasurer. Margaret Radcliffe, who had been a helper since the shop opened, took over as manager. The shop was given a makeover with new fittings and Betty made the support for needy people in the area more widely known and accessible. One result was that the takings increased substantially, more than doubling between 2005 and 2007 and reaching a peak in 2008. A comfortable surplus was now in the account which has enabled grants to be given in future years over and above an individual year’s income. 

It is hard to measure the impact that the Pop-in-Shop has had in the local community. Certainly a vast quantity of second-hand clothes, toys and household goods have been made available to local people at very reasonable prices, but this is only one side of the shop’s work. The second is to support individuals and families in need. Most years around fifteen such grants have been given covering a wide range of situations. Sudden bereavement, the break-down of relationships and re-housing can all create situations where support may be needed for a while. Times of inflation and delays in the receipt of benefits put pressure on family budgets and make it difficult to find cash for replacing life-expired essential equipment. 

The Shop also worked for many years with the Watkinson Trust, another St Mary’s charity, in distributing supermarket vouchers before Christmas to more than thirty local people recommended by the local heath authority 

The shop has supported various local organisations, the schools and Overgate Hospice for example. It helps fund the annual fireworks display in the village and other one-off events. Over the years it has supported several young people undertaking voluntary projects, including one disabled youngster who went on to become a household name after her success in successive Paralympic games. 

The third aspect of the Shop’s work is simply that it provides somewhere where people can come and chat. Our staff are always happy to listen. 

It is impossible to measure how much the shop has achieved in its thirty years. In financial terms we have been able to give grants totalling more than £200,000 since the year 2000, but it is less easy to measure the support given in terms of boosting people’s moral and supporting families in times of difficulty. 

As to the future, things look good. Our new landlord in 2019, generously reduced our rent and has maintained it at that level since. We have a new shop manager who joined us last year and a new team of helpers mainly recruited since Covid. Everyone is enthusiastic to see the shop going forward for many more years and with a growing church behind it I am sure that our presence on Kershaw will continue as strong as ever. 



Geoff