Archive for category: News and Events

We are delighted that, due to further relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions on Monday April 12^th, we will be opening up some of our coffee shops once more. To make sure we are able to operate safely and within COVID-19 guidelines, our coffee shops will be open as below:

From Monday April 12th our Ottery St Mary and Plymouth coffee shops will be offering a takeaway only service everyday, this will be a limited menu including cakes and hot drinks. The opening hours will be: Ottery St Mary – 9am to 4pm Monday – Sunday. Plymouth – 9am to 5pm  Monday to Saturday, 10.30am – 4pm on Sundays.

At our Lymington, Taunton and Jack’s Patch coffee shops we will be offering takeaway and outdoor seating. The opening times at these coffee shops will be 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, 10:30am to 4pm on Sundays.  A limited menu will be available to order.

Unfortunately, at this time, our coffee shops at Wincanton and Torbay centres will remain closed. We hope to be able to re-open these in May subject to further updates to COVID-19 guidelines. We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause to our customers in Wincanton and Torbay.

Any updates will be posted here on our website and our social media pages.

Before you visit, please visit our COVID-19 Coffee Shop FAQ.

We’d like to thank all customers for their patience whilst our coffee shops have been closed, and we very much look forward to seeing you soon.

Thank you to generous Wincanton customers!

2020 was a very difficult year in terms of fundraising for our chosen charities, as we were unable to hold any special events as we usually do. However, customers were still able to donate to collecting tins in the garden centre.

So we’d like to give a heartfelt thank you to our Wincanton customers who helped the branch raise over £430 for the Yeovil Freewheelers charity.

As an emergency volunteer service, Yeovil Freewheelers supports Yeovil District Hospital, Dorset County Hospital and the community hospitals across the region by providing emergency courier services for blood, platelets, blood and tissue samples, medication, breast milk, documents, X rays, CT scans, and equipment.

The service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, saving the NHS around £200,000 a year while easing patients’ suffering and helping to save lives.

The charity receives no funding from either national or local government relying instead on donors, sponsors, businesses and individuals.

Our Wincanton branch has supported the charity for several years and has decided to continue supporting Yeovil Freewheelers during 2021. If you would like to make your own donation visit: https://www.yfwbloodbikes.org/

In a show of Christmas spirit, our MD Jacqui Taylor is helping to make sure that no-one in the nearby community of Ottery St Mary will go short of a festive meal on Christmas Day.

With the annual free Christmas lunch in the town unable to take place due to the pandemic, Jacqui and her team of willing helpers at Otter Garden Centre will provide a roast turkey dinner complete with a Christmas cracker and mince pie to the elderly, infirm, isolated or anyone otherwise in need, at no cost. The meal will be freshly cooked and delivered at lunchtime on December 25.

Jacqui says, “It’s been such a hard year for everyone but especially so for older people and those who have had to shield – there has been so much isolation and loneliness. Many don’t have family to care for them, whilst for others their family members live a long distance away or in a higher tier, so they are not able to visit this Christmas.”

“We really do believe Christmas is a time for giving and for showing that we care. With this small gesture we hope that the most vulnerable and lonely in our community will know that we are thinking of them.”

The meals, which will be freshly prepared by our restaurant team, will include roast turkey and all the trimmings – roast potatoes, fresh vegetables, stuffing, pigs in blankets and gravy, plus the all-important homemade mince pie to finish.

Jacqui has enlisted several family members who together with the “Ottery Community Volunteer Group” and other volunteers from Ottery will be putting off their own celebrations until later on Christmas Day in order to make the deliveries and ensure the food arrives piping hot and on time.

Family, friends and neighbours are encouraged to nominate anyone they think should be included. Former mayor Glyn Dobson and the Ottery Help Scheme are putting the list together. Glyn says that he has received requests from family members living hundreds of miles for their elderly parents to receive a meal.

To nominate someone for a meal, contact Glyn 01404 813403 and at glyndobson@aol.com  or Emily at the Ottery Help Scheme 01404 813041 and at info@otteryhelpscheme.org.uk

Christmas has come to Ottery St Mary and we are delighted to have been asked to donate a beautiful, home grown Christmas tree again this year.

Our team from Otter, Ottery St Mary delivered and set up the tree in its traditional spot, outside the library in Silver Street. We were extremely grateful to Ottery resident Richard Coley who always makes sure a tree goes up every year for his help in decorating the tree, and we appreciate his time to help add

the baubles and twinkling fairy lights. Our Branch Manager John Giblin was there to make sure that everything went to plan and the tree looked the best it has ever looked to bring added festive cheer to the town.

The tree is a beautiful 10 year old Nordman Fir, a variety with a low needle drop so we know it will look its best throughout the festive season. It’s from our own range of Christmas trees grown less than two miles from the town, so very much locally sourced!

For each Christmas tree we cut down we plant two new ones, meeting our sustainable aims. Our Christmas tree growing area also provides shelter and food for wildlife, including bees from beehives kept there which use the pollen to feed their larvae.

After the season, the tree will be recycled through the local council’s recycling scheme.