As we race towards the official opening of the new charity shop at NVR Wansford at the end of May; now seems a good time to reflect on the achievements of the charity shop team over the last five years.
How It All Began
When the concept of a charity shop at NVR was first suggested in 2019, it was met with some scepticism and uncertainty as to whether it would be an asset to the railway. Not one to give up easily, Sarah Hudson-Mann ran some pop up charity shops around the site and having made £250 on each occasion, recognised the future potential and forged ahead to ensure that her vision became a reality. She sourced the original unit; a portakabin that required quite a lot of work but she fortunately also had a guardian angel who helped to resolve those issues with a generous donation to the cause.
Like the rest of the nation, we were impacted by Covid but still undeterred, Sarah set up the Online Charity Shop on Facebook (Nene Valley Railway Online Charity Shop if you'd like to join and take a look) to start raising funds. In hindsight, Covid probably weighed in our favour as it meant that the shop unit was able to be renovated without undue pressure and of course, with everyone having mass clearouts for something to do, we had plenty of donations dropped off. The shop was fully stocked and ready to go once the restrictions were lifted and since then, the charity shop has gone from strength to strength.
The original Charity Shop (on the right) in 2021.
How do we raise money?
Although initially staffed by Sarah and one or two other volunteers, the charity shop team has expanded to ensure that the physical shop can be manned every weekend and often on Wednesday running days. We now have a separate bookshop too and our Facebook Online Shop has over 1K followers. We organise quizzes and bingo at the Wansford site and on the online shop we run pick-a-number competitions and sell donated items. We also sell items through Vinted, Ebay and one volunteer has plant sales in her village throughout the year. As a result, the charity shop regularly raises £1000 a month - £12,000 annually - with 50% of this coming from sales in the shop at Wansford.
Where does the money go?
The charity shop was established because Sarah noticed that there were small projects around the railway that needed completion but were either underfunded or there was no budget available for them. These projects are still at the heart of the charity shop's fundraising efforts. The money we raise continues to be spent on projects that would otherwise never get off the ground.
Although many of our donations to these projects are quite small, over the last five years some of the projects that the charity shop has supported includes:
- £5000 to the Derek Crouch restoration fund (this is a long term commitment)
- £1000 to the Wagons team for new airbrakes
- £650 to the Gardening Volunteers to purchase a new shed, tools and slabs for it to be placed in-situ at NVR
- £600 for PAT testing training (which allows us to sell electrical items)
- £1000 to refurbish the cafe e.g. new wallpaper
- £130 to have the PAT tester recalibrated/repaired
The charity shop also:
- covered the costs of refurbishing an unused wagon into the charity bookshop
- subsidised the 2024 volunteer fish and chip train costs (to reduce it to £5pp)
- paid for benches to create a picnic area behind the Barnwell
- paid for thank you gifts/rewards for the two boys who raised money for the new signal box
- purchased a new fridge/generator for the CCT
- purchased and donated thank you gift bags for volunteers - Christmas 2022
- purchased the paint for the CCT refurbishment
- purchased a smoke machine for the Halloween trains
- purchased paint for the gift shop
Just some of the projects that benefitted from donations - the workshop, the bookshop and new garden shed.
The Big Project 2022
In 2022 as a team we decided to fundraise for a longer term project - a new Accessible toilet facility. Although there is an accessible toilet/baby change area immediately outside the cafe at Wansford, it was evident that it was no longer fit for purpose, especially on very busy days. An appropriate site was found and the decision was made to fundraise for a new, accessible toilet outside the station building. It took 18 months to raise the £12,000 needed as we wanted to continue to support other projects too, but finally the amount required was raised. An appropriate accessible toilet facility was found, purchased and after lots of work from the Buildings Team, is in situ and fully functional.
The new accessible toilet facility
Looking Forward
Alongside all of these donations to the good causes around the railway, money had also been reinvested in the original shop (shelving, cupboards etc) and we had been planning to replace the floor before the Christmas opening began. Unfortunately, upon lifting the floor the maintenance team discovered that the damage was more extensive than anticipated and as a result the shop was condemned and demolished. This threw us a bit of a curveball but if nothing else, as a team, we are determined and resilient. Consequently, after 6 months of discussions, local construction firm RG Carters, who have a local office in Peterborough, very generously donated a new container that we are now in the process of converting into our brand new charity shop.
As you can imagine, we are very excited to be able to continue our fundraising; which will begin in earnest after our official open day on Wednesday 28th May.
We will continue to support the renovation of Derek Crouch and will be donating money to the Buildings Team for a new roof for their workshop. We also have a number of larger projects under consideration so for now it is a case of "watch this space" to find out what the Charity Shop's 'Big Project 2025' will be.
Hopefully, it goes without saying that we know that none of this would be possible without the generous support of those who donate items, visit the shop, purchase goodies, participate in our quizzes and bingo or generally spread the word about what we do.
THANK YOU!