'New Glory' for Cullompton High St.

A hearty welcome to Amy and Kerry, who have, this fine summer's day, opened a brand new gift shop in the middle of the high street. It is beautiful and filled with enticing objects for the home, and great gift ideas. There's a lovely mixture of old and new, furniture, crockery, hangings, frames and all sorts of pretty little things.

This is just what our town has been wishing for, and what I personally have been waiting for ever since before I moved here 5 years ago.

It's nice to be able to browse for presents from the comfort of your own high street, instead of always having to go elsewhere. There'll always be that birthday that you somehow didn't plan for, and need to find something quickly. With New Glory, and La Bella, which now stocks a lovely range of homely gifts, we now have a choice on our doorstep. 

Cullompton is a dear, sweet town whose reputation has had to battle and compete with other towns and villages for recognition and appreciation. But I love our town. Apart from having a really wonderful community and being surrounded by beautiful rolling hills, we have so much to offer, from the Hayridge Centre and Library, to excellent Health Centres and Community Centre, several charity shops, a whole heap of hairdressers, a greengrocer, butcher, bakery, and more.

And the bar was raised early this year with the emergence of the excellent Bakehouse cafe in the Bullring. With its successful opening and lasting appeal, suddenly, the people of Cullompton have realised that our town deserves such a gem and more of equal calibre. We have all been anticipating the knock-on effect this bravery and quality would bring.

It seems that a new season has begun, where local people want to invest in our high street, and make it something to be proud of, for ourselves and for our visitors. It seems that everywhere you turn there's scaffolding there, hammering here, fresh paint and busy workmen giving our shop fronts and interiors a bit of TLC. The hopeless high street of a year ago is gone, hopefully forever, making way for a fresh new generation of shops and businesses. 

Cullompton is a special place and it's up to us as shoppers to support local businesses and have faith that there are even better things to come. I know I'll be sticking around to see it happen.