ABOUT US
The Old Shop Bayble Community Association
The Old Shop Bayble is a not-for-profit community association initiated in August 2020 by volunteers who got together to see how they could use the Old Shop space to benefit the community. The Roots for Low Impact Living C.I.C. supported the volunteers to set up a community reuse and local craft shop. In May 2022 The Old Shop Bayble became an unincorporated community association.
The aims and objectives of our community association are to:
Maintain a social and community hub in Bayble, Isle of Lewis.
Maintain an important local historic building and make it available to the community and the public.
Facilitate the re-circulation of household goods and clothing.
Foster and promote the local craft-making community.
Offer a range of environmentally-friendly products for sale.
Support local environmental and community projects.
We provide benefit to:
Everyone (island residents, visitors and tourists) who visits the Bayble area, by provision of a welcoming shop and cafe in a unique historic setting.
We also provide benefit to the wider community and natural world by supporting the reuse of clothes, books, toys and other household items.
MEMBERSHIP
The Old Shop Bayble community association membership is open to all shop users and volunteers, and anyone else wanting to support the aims of the group.
Members can join the association on application by provision of their name and contact details and will remain a member until they inform the association that they wish to cease membership.
VOLUNTEERING WITH US
At the Old Shop Bayble, we contribute to local life by bringing a much-loved historic shop back into community use to help us to reduce waste, and showcase locally-produced crafts amongst other interesting, unusual and useful items.
Our shop is entirely run by volunteers. Our volunteers take part by doing one shift in the shop per week.
A shift lasts 2.5 hours and can be either:
12 until 2.30 pm or 2.30 pm until 5 pm.
Our volunteers motivations are diverse, however most of us volunteer at the shop because we like to meet our neighbours and we think it is good to have a local space in our community where people can get to know others that live locally.
A further incentive for our volunteers is to support greater reuse, sustainability and local craft production in our community. Through donating unwanted clothing, books and toys, swapping and sharing our resources, we can reduce the amount of new things we buy, therefore reducing our impacts on the environment.
THE SHOP
In our historic shop/post office premises you will find secondhand clothing, books, toys and other household items looking for a new home.
All our children and baby clothes are free to encourage reuse.
Eco-friendly products and local craft, with coffee, tea and baking and secondhand clothing, books and toys.
We also stock a range of environmental and social friendly products including bamboo toothbrushes; reusable shaving items; household cleaning products, toilet paper and handmade felt decorations.
We work with local craft producers to promote beautiful hand-made objects from the area. Turned wooden gifts, pens, keyrings, harris tweed gifts and candles are just a sample of the bespoke pieces you'll find in Old Shop Bayble.
Our vegan sweets are particularly popular. We also have a range of teas, coffees and baking
