April Gossip magazine article

Each month, the AudlemOnline team sends a 500-word article about the village to the publishers of the Whitchurch Gossip and Market Drayton Gossip magazines.

These excellent publications are widely (and freely) distributed in North Shropshire and many in Audlem see a copy, particularly of the Whitchurch magazine. Many of our readers, however, are outside their distribution area.

We thought you might like to read what we said about the village this month in the April
issues:

Audlem's shops still growing

Visitors flock to Audlem for its canal, walking, cycling, pubs, cafés and to enjoy its many festivals. But there is another good reason too – its shops. Few villages or market towns have seen a doubling in the number of shops since the bankers nearly bankrupted Britain in 2008 but somehow that's happened in Audlem.

There was a burst of activity in 2009 with the arrival of Audlem CycleSport and a top quality flower shop, now the Flower Divas, and Audlem Dry Cleaners, all right on the Square in the village centre. The cycle shop draws enthusiasts from a wide area and has a range of cycles and accessories to suit everyone.

Other shops soon arrived such as Hoc's Fat Pigeon with a range of interesting healthy foods, Snapes bread from nearby Woore, organic fruit and vegetables, and a second hand book store in one wing of the shop.

Last year, right next to Hoc's came the opening of Oxtail & Trotter, a high quality butchers shop run by a young farming family that source their beef, lamb, pork and many other products from local farms, quality breeds and artisan producers of sauces, chutneys, ready meals and charcuterie. Game is sold in season.

The old butchers yard next to Oxtail & Trotter is currently seeing the creation of more retail units meaning that Audlem's retail growth can continue this summer.

Other new shops in recent years include Mandy Boo, a fashion boutique, and Dressing Rooms, which supplies soft furnishings, curtains and much else. Both are housed in new units alongside the Co-operative Food Store which moved to its new, larger premises in Shropshire Street when the Moseley's Yard development was completed.

The Deli reopened last year and as well as delicatessen products, bread, fruit and vegetables now prepares ready meals. Next door, another relatively new arrival is the Jinja Bakes café, famed for its cakes. Relatively recently, Boots took over the village chemists shops and expanded it.

Long established businesses include Williams' newsagents, this year celebrating 150 years in business run by the same family, where there is also tourist information; Audlem Post Office in Stafford Street; and The Old Priest House, both a café and traditional sweet shop. Audlem Pine, Audlem Upholsterers and Graham Tresidder Funeral Services are all in the centre of the village.

Down on the canal, Audlem Mill sells a wide range of canal and other gifts as well as specialist embroidery and other craft products and hosts one of the largest exhibitions of canal art each year.

Audlem Charity shop, run entirely by local volunteers, in the past year raised £25,000, half of which went St Luke's Hospice, and half to the Donna Louise Children's Hospice. Next year's beneficiaries will be St Luke's, Donna Louise, The Air Ambulance Service, Audlem First Responders and the Wingate Centre, Wrenbury.

And, to making all your shopping easier, parking in Audlem is free!

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.