News

Dear eco shop customers

UPDATE : We are open Tuesday - Friday 10.30am to 4pm, and Saturday 10am - 2pm.

Thank you for all your messages and enquiries while we have been closed during lockdown - it means a lot to us.

We are delighted to let you know that we will be starting our programme of re-opening next week with some limited hours and special arrangements in place.  We will be undertaking constant review and monitoring and plan to gradually increase hours, access and availability as we can, keeping both your safety and the safety of our staff at the forefront of our minds.  We will do our best to keep you up to date with all our plans and opening hours via social media (instagram: @svpecoshop and @svpcharity, facebook Stroud Valleys Project and Twitter @svpcharity), on our website and notices on our door.

Please be aware that we are opening the shop only - recycling schemes are NOT available at the current time.

We will open on Tuesday 23rd from 11am to 3.30pm.  On Wednesday 24^th and Thursday 25th we will be open between 10.30am and 3.30pm.  For our initial re-opening, our counter and till will be at the door and will serve you from there.  This allows us to open now, while we continue to improve safety inside the shop for our customers.

Our counter is wide - so we hope you will feel comfortable being served by us; we believe it is possible to maintain the 2m social distancing through thoughtful and respectful behaviour - but please let us know if you are not comfortable with our arrangements.

Please queue across the front of the shop, maintaining a 2m distance between household groups.

We are building our stock back up so plan to offer all the products you are used to - but we're sure lots of you will be interested in refills.  We WILL be doing refills but please bear in mind the following:

• please thoroughly wash your bottles before bringing them to us.  We reserve the right not to refill if we are not happy that the bottles are clean.  We will be washing our hands between filling bottles for different customers.
• if possible, please bring bottles to us with a view to collecting them next day, or later the same day.  Maintaining high standards of hygiene will inevitably mean the process takes longer.  By having bottles overnight, we can aim to serve more customers within the day. 
• if you have more than one bottle, please give them to us in a bag so that we can keep them together, ideally with your name marked clearly on it.  If you can also provide a list of what you want, that will help too!
• we have set up an email address so that you can email orders to us in advance: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  Emailing in advance will help us streamline the process even more.
• some prices have increased since March, but we have kept as products as possible at the same price.  We aim to have a price list available in the near future

We would prefer contactless payment - but can also take cash.

Finally, if you are unable to get to the shop in person, please don't hesitate to contact us by email ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) or by phone (01453 753358) and we will see if there is a way we can help.

Looking forward to welcoming you back!

Created: 07 July 2020

Dear Friends,

Are you sat at home during lockdown, wishing you could take all that clutter to a charity shop? We've teamed up with Virgin Money Giving, World of Books Group and trade-in site Ziffit to give you an innovative new way to support our charity to allow you to do just that.

It’s a great way to raise funds easily and safely. You can sell books that have an ISBN number, and DVD’s, Digital Games, CD’s as long as they have a bar code. If you collect more than 5kg of items, you qualify for a courier collection which is a safe and contactless way to get rid of unwanted items whilst maintaining social distancing and staying safe. We are launching this now, for Giving Tuesday but we hope it will continue throughout the year.

By decluttering at home, you can donate unwanted items through trade-in site and app Ziffit, and 100% of the trade value will go directly to our charity. It’s free for us and free for you, too. We can claim Gift Aid, too, if you are eligible.

You can download the app if you have a Smart phone, or use the link below to go directly to fundraise for our charity.

To find out more click here. https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/giving/worldofbooks/charities/

To fundraise for our charity in this way.

https://ziffit.com/en-gb/basket?charityResourceId=5d06f2e0-3cf7-11e3-80f9-00237d37086c

We do hope you will fundraise for us in this way.

Yours sincerely

Julie Wickham

Marketing and Fundraising Manager

P.S. This is a great way to reduce waste, reuse items and recycle.

Created: 06 May 2020

Please watch our short film about wildlife gardening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvcRvGl-Q5Y

We are challenging you to find your dandelions and take photographs of the insects that visit them. We explain all about the importance of dandelions in the film. They are great for spotting insects because they grow on waste ground and pavements, so even if you don’t have a garden you can still spot things when you are out and about on your daily exercise. They are starting to go to seed now so if they have, grab a handful to plant for next year and maybe take a photograph of the beautiful ‘dandelion clocks’. Email us at (which email? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )

Dandelion Clocks?

Does anyone else remember using dandelion seed heads as ‘clocks’, to ‘tell the time’, blowing on the seed head until it was empty and then counting how many times you had to blow to make all the ‘fairies’ fly away and then saying ‘that’s x o’clock’. Do email us and let us know your memories.

If you would like to spot more things, please go to www.wildclassrooms.org and register and there with your spottings. The species we are spotting in May are Cow Parsley, Orange Tip Butterfly, Great Tit, Hawthorn and anything of your own choice.

A big thank you to John Bassett (Spaniel in the Works) and Tom Wickham-Bassett for donating their time to our charity during lockdown to bring us this film.

Created: 30 April 2020

Children and families can now join a special website created by environmental charity Stroud Valleys Project to help learn about the natural world around them. The site, called www.wildclassrooms.org is based around the challenge to see if participants can spot 60 different types of plants and animals in a year. Clare Mahdiyone, Chief Executive of Stroud Valleys Project said, "In a recent Dutch study they found that primary aged school children have difficulties identifying common native animals, with on average the children in the sample identifying only 35% of the species correctly! It is so important to be able to recognise the animals and plants around us because, to quote the acclaimed nature writer, Robert Macfarlane, 'We find it hard to love what we cannot give a name to. And what we do not love we will not save.” 

Created: 01 April 2020

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Click here to see what happened when Stroud’s Five Valley’s shopping centre had a festive grotto. The popular yurt grotto was open to young shoppers in the run up to Christmas over two weekends and raised funds for our charity :

Five Valleys team collaborates with Stroud Valleys Project - Retail shopping at Five Valleys, Stroud

Created: 06 February 2020

Everyone wants more trees! We will be planting trees with lots of community groups and landowners in the Stroud area. We have just received delivery of a further 2,000 trees – bringing our total to 3,200 - and are in the process of organising tree planting workshops around the district over the next 2 months. Our Wild About Trees planting project has been supported by local donors, Environment Agency and last week we received funding from The National Lottery, enabling us to plant trees both this season and next. Do contact us if you are interested in getting involved in planting or if you have land suitable for planting trees. If you would like to donate to our Wild About Trees tree planting project you can make a donation via our website or in our eco shop, or you can purchase a £10 tree gift voucher in the shop.

Created: 22 January 2020

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Press release from Stroud District Council dated 27 November 2019

Wild flowers, trees and seating will transform a former Stroud District Council garage site as part of a project to improve three canalside areas in Stonehouse.

As part of the re-wilding project, Great Crested newts are set to get a new pond at another site, and a third site will also provide new habitat for bees.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust has started working on the Wild Towns project, which has received funding from the European Regional Development Fund and is being match funded by Stroud District Council and Stonehouse Town Council.

Created: 02 December 2019

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Our raffle is our Christmas fundraiser, that time of year when we have some fun and win some prizes. We have a fantastic array of prizes for you this year, they are either kindly donated by Friends and supporters, or have an environmental theme and/or support our ethos of trying to be the best we can be from an environmental point of view.

Below you can see some of the prizes you can win, and by taking part you will be supporting our charity at the same time!

Created: 28 November 2019

A new study into the impact of outdoor activity on children's wellbeing suggests that being outside can help youngsters feel more confident and capable of trying new things. Many of the children who took part in the study also believe that spending time in nature can give their school work a boost, according to the report.

The Wildlife Trusts, which commissioned the study, said the findings show that children experience "profound and diverse benefits" through having regular contact with nature, and that every child should have the chance to "experience the joy of wildlife in daily life." Contact with the wild improves children's wellbeing, motivation and confidence.

Photo : Deb Roberts

Created: 20 November 2019

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