Humshaugh Village Shop

Can you believe it? Your community shop, run by a fabulous team of volunteers , is 10 years old. It was November 1st 2009 when Humshaugh Community Ventures Ltd took over the village shop from Pat and Rob Gray. Since then we’ve gone from strength to strength with the number of volunteers increasing from around 40 to 50. You can read how it all began on the background story page on this site.

Thank you to everyone who has made Humshaugh Village Shop possible. The funders and advisers and, most importantly, the volunteers and customers. We couldn’t have done it without you.

What’s great is that, apart from saving the shop, we’ve been able to fund £60,000s worth of community and individual projects in and around Humshaugh. Then there are all the groups that we’ve been able to underwrite until they found their feet. Haven’t we done well?

Winter draws on. The clocks go back at the end of the month

and yes … Humshaugh Film Nights start again.

For the first and last Film Nights of the season you can enjoy a main course before the movie and a dessert in the interval. You can see the film without enjoying all the fabulous food but, if you can’t resist it, please make sure you buy your ticket in advance so that we know how many to cater for. Thanks.

Yes it’s that time of year again. Production of our now famous Humshaugh Apple Juice will begin this weekend – Saturday and Sunday September 21st and 22nd. For those of you who are new to the village, here’s what happens. If you have any surplus apples (eaters or cookers) bring them to the back of the village hall from 9.30am and we’ll begin washing, shopping and pressing them from 10.00. We aim to finish at 4pm on both days. The juice is bottled and pasteurised and will go on sale in the shop shortly afterwards. Apart from being a really tasty product, the juice raises money to support the shop and all the projects that we help to fund.

In case we haven’t given you enough notice, we will be back at the Village Hall doing it all again on Saturday and Sunday October 5th and 6th. So there’s no excuse to have any leftover apples.

Humshaugh Apple Juice

Time is rapidly running out for you to polish your marrow or practice your Showstopper Cake recipe because this year’s Humshaugh Harvest Food and  Flower Show is happening this Saturday (September 14th). The show, in and around the Village Hall, gets underway at midday but entries for the show categories will have to be delivered between 8.00 and 10.00am. The judges will be deliberating between 10.00 and 12.00.

There’s some much more happening at this year’s show. There’ll be a local food market, a fun dog show, vintage tractors, Morris dancers, a Northumbrian Piper and fiddler, the North Tyne Voices Choir and children’s games. If you need a sit down during that hectic afternoon of activity, there’ll also be a fabulous cafe.

It’s still not too late to enter. You can pick up show schedules from us here at the shop or from the Crown Inn. Fees are £1 to enter one category or £3 to enter an unlimited number of categories.

The admission charge is £2 for adults (17 and over) or free for unders 17s.

Get your tickets now for the Lawnmowers Theatre production of “Mist” at Humshaugh Village Hall on Tuesday July 16th. They’re free and available from the shop. Please make a donati0n after the show.

The Lawnmowers are no strangers to Humshaugh and this time they’re staging a play about the controversial topic of Personal Independence Payments and the government’s programme of re-assessment. It explores the human cost behind the repeated, often confusing, process through the eyes of Frankie, a young woman with learning disabilities.

The Lawnmowers is a unique theatre company  that is run by and for people with learning disabilities. Funded by the Community Foundation and the Arts Council, the group works towards a just and equal society,  honouring and developing the culture of people with learning disabilities. The group explores and develops their ideas with a view to taking control of their own futures.

The company has a professional base with rehearsal and performance spaces in Swinburne House in Gateshead and for 20 years has been involved in hundreds of workshops and performances locally, nationally and internationally.  The company has produced videos, booklets and DVDs and has now developed an apprenticeship scheme. 6 years ago, the company worked with a band of Brazilian musicians on a dynamic production entitled ‘Boomba Down the Tyne’, which was toured nationally and to an enthusiastic audience in Humshaugh. The latest production, entitled ‘Mist’, lasts 50 minutes and promises to be thought-provoking as well as entertaining.

Entrance is free but we encourage you to give a donation after the show. It helps HAP (Humshaugh Arts Programme) to know how many people may be coming so, if you would like to attend, could you please get a ticket from the village shop. That’s not to say  you won’t get in if you turn up at the door.

Doors open at 6.30pm and the show begins at 7.00.

It will be a unique experience with a unique theatre group.

You can find out more on the group’s website:    thelawnmowers.co.uk
or from Facebook:   www.facebook.com/lawnmowersITC

Tickets are on sale in the shop for the Crown Players latest production – “A Bunch of Amateurs”. There are 3 shows at 7.30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday the 28th, 29th and 30th of March. Tickets cost £8.

Keen to boost his flagging career, fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steele arrives in England to play King Lear in Stratford – only to find that this is not the birthplace of the Bard, but a sleepy Suffolk village. And instead of Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench, the cast are a bunch of amateurs trying to save their theatre from developers. Jefferson’s monstrous ego, vanity and insecurity are tested to the limit by the enthusiastic am-dram thespians. As acting worlds collide and Jefferson’s career implodes, he discovers some truths about himself – along with his inner Lear!

If you can’t get to the shop, tickets are also available online via www.eventbrite.com .