The TV cameras were in Parwich yesterday at the Sycamore Inn, doing a feature on our new Shop. ITV’s Central News made a live lunchtime broadcast from the Shop featuring interviews with Janet (she said she was still feeling nervous today), Mary R and Freda K. A recorded feature also appeared on the early evening News with Janet and Freda again, and a further interview with Louise B. The evening slot also included a number of local children shopping after school.
If you want to see clips Janet has a video recording or you can view on-line by doing the following:
1. Click on this link. This will open the Central News page in a new window.
2. Select “full screen” mode, by clicking the button on the bottom right hand side of the little TV viewer window, or by right-clicking on the viewer window itself.
3. Move the blue slider (at the foot of the viewing window) along to 6:30, so as to skip the first six and a half minutes of the programme.
4. After the clip from Parwich ends, keep watching for the next couple of minutes, while East Midlands Minister Phil Hope is interviewed about current national government strategy relating to the future of village shops.
Further reading: Here’s a write-up of the whole scheme, as taken from the official website for “Pub Is The Hub” (the organisation which helped Janet set up the shop, in what turns out to be the fastest turnaround time to date).
You can find out more about “Pub Is The Hub” here. The scheme was launched in 2001, and has the personal backing of HRH The Prince of Wales.
PARWICH.ORG 
I managed after some effort to view the piece, can anyone give us an easier link, or is searching for the whole programme the only option?
This took me the best part of an hour to work out, but I finally got there! I’ve now amended the post with full viewing instructions…. phew….
– Mike A.
The link worked brilliantly, I just kept fast forwarding for 6 1/2 minutes. Great publicity, well done Janet & good luck for the award.
Many thanks Mike; this is a much more efficient way than that initially suggested in my first draft of the post. I too got there straight away this time.
The rural regeneration group provided financial backing after hearing the village’s only shop was due to close and its local bus service was under threat.
are we about to lose our bus service ? i have never heard about this when is it going ?
Well Bill, the P.O went, the Methodist Chapel, the shop why not the buses, the school, the Church. That’s the reason the change of use for the shop has to be fought – for the future of our community and the younger generation. It’s not an issure about Emma & Jason but what we have and are losing in the village. Good on Janet – it was great to see her and The Sycamore on the News and I hope she wins the award. She deserves it. But remember everyone to sign the petition in the Shop which objects to the change of use to Spar Shop. What’s next to go!!
Bill, I think that the Pub Is The Hub article might have been referring to the loss of the fortnightly bus service to Derby, as that was pulled at around the same time that the Sycamore shop opened. That’s my best guess, at any rate.
– Mike A.
Jazz , I was just questioning the statement about the buses i had not heard that the buses were being removed and was just wondering what had been said and when they were ending as i assumed the Pub Hub people had been given a story along the lines of the shop has shut and the buses are stopping (this is how it reads), which would probably make them more likely to hand over cash rather then if the story was the shop has shut.
even if there is no fortnightly bus to derby you can still get to ashbourne and then get the derby bus so is it really an issue?, having lived in the village a wee while i can remember when there were only the buses to school in the morning and the return in the afternoon. I actually had to walk to my place of employment on many occasions as a youngster and i can say it did me no harm at all if anything thing it made me thankful for the place i was brought up in.
the post office went probably because no one was using or becasue of cut backs i cannot actually remember which one the chapel went because no one was using it and they have seen a chance to cash in rather then pay out for repairs the shop went becaue not enough trade was being carried out. there could be a theme here?
the school could go as house prices are high and could stop younger families moving in or locals staying to bring their own families up.
am not to sure what the petition is about really and what is trying to be gained by it the shop has shut and janet has openend a new one, now if the shop was to be bought as a commercial venture and open what would happen? would everyone leave janet in the lurch? would the hub people ask for their money back? would people support the new owners?
At the time the Post Office closed, level of use would not have been a factor. It was a potential problem with Post Offices that the number of hours they were funded for was only indirectly linked to turnover, though this benefited small rural communities. A Post Office’s funding was linked to the number hours they were allowed to be open, not the number of customers. Even now Post Office Counters would have had problems shutting down a Post Office in Parwich as we are more than the officially agreed minimum distance from an alternative (though they probably would have found a way round this).
It might even still be a possibility that a Post Office could be opened in Parwich, though the return from ‘community hours’ would not repay the necessary capital outlay to create premises of the required security, as Stuart had found out when he looked into this some years ago.