Residents of Trawden, Lancashire, have transformed their village into a thriving, community-run hub, owning and operating key amenities like the pub, shop, post office, and library.
Around 150 volunteers help keep these services running, receiving discounts and raffle entries as rewards.
The initiative began in 2014 when villagers bought the community centre for £1 to save it from closure.
Their shop, now a limited company, donates profits to local causes, while the Trawden Arms pub was saved through a £450,000 fundraising effort.
Volunteers say their work strengthens friendships, supports the elderly, and keeps the village spirit alive.
Around 150 volunteers help keep these services running, receiving discounts and raffle entries as rewards.
The initiative began in 2014 when villagers bought the community centre for £1 to save it from closure.
Their shop, now a limited company, donates profits to local causes, while the Trawden Arms pub was saved through a £450,000 fundraising effort.
Volunteers say their work strengthens friendships, supports the elderly, and keeps the village spirit alive.
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FunTranscript
00:00I'm Mike and I'm the post office man. They all call me the postie and I've been doing
00:10this for about four years now at Troden. This is one of my very favourite outreaches because
00:15the people are all very nice. It's marvellous what the volunteers have done and what everybody
00:20have done to set this up and keep the village alive.
00:29I'm Jamie Hargreaves. I'm the manager of the Troden Arms. So the pub's owned by the community.
00:35I believe there's 425 shareholders all around that figure. Myself and my wife, we lease
00:42it from them and we have been doing so since January 2023. It's been going swimmingly.
00:52It's been going great ever since we took it on. We always try to make sure we've got enough
00:57choice and availability for anybody that wants to come in, whether it's gluten free, which
01:03is a big thing, or alcoholic beer. We've got a range of 18 different draft products at
01:08any one time.
01:09So the pub was the final piece of the puzzle for the community. They bought it last after
01:16securing the community centre, the shop, the library, the post office, and all that is
01:21solely run by over 120 volunteers. The pub itself has six volunteers.
01:35My name's Molly Ralpherson. I'm the volunteer coordinator here at Troden Forest Community
01:40Centre Library and Shop. So I work 25 hours and I'm one of the only people who is employed.
01:48Everybody else in the organisation are volunteers. They give up their time for free. We've got
01:54the community centre, which is a building that has events on. It has a bar so people
02:00can hire the centre for birthdays and weddings. We've got a license for weddings and it's
02:03used by so many different community groups and it's run by a board of trustees or volunteers.
02:10It takes a lot of people to keep our assets running, volunteering. We've got about 150
02:16people who volunteer in some capacity or other to keep everything going. I mean, the shop
02:21itself needs 68 different people to do two hours a week just to keep the shop open. That's
02:28just serving customers in the shop and keeping the shelves filled. Behind the scenes, obviously,
02:33there's so many more hours that go on in terms of accounting, buying, driving, office. It's
02:40just an endless list and people give up their time for that, 150 of us all together.