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05
Sept
Great Ouseburn Post Office to reopen next week with ambitious plans
Great Ouseburn Village Store and Post Office is to reopen next week following a two-month closure.
Postmaster Nik Wood today told the Stray Ferret the branch had undergone a “six-figure refurbishment” since it closed in early July.
It now has new flooring and walls, a coffee station and a soon-to-be complete café.
Mr Wood, who took on the Post Office with his wife in May 2023, said people could expect a brand new Post Office counter, as well as a village shop stocked with locally sourced produce and a takeaway coffee bar.
We have three rules here: artisan Yorkshire produce, sustainability and being community centric.
The shop will offer household essentials, as well meat from nearby butchers, baked goods from a Great Ouseburn resident and even honey from bees kept in the village.
Mr Wood added the “vast majority” of stock was sourced from within 50 miles of the village.
People can also look forward to a “coffee bike”, Mr Wood said, which is ridden by a Great Ouseburn resident and will bring a mobile coffee station to the Post Office every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
The Stray Ferret reported on plans to convert a residential annexe and courtyard into a café after they were approved in July.
Mr Wood, who was previously a finance director before taking on the Post Office, said construction work on the café has not yet completed, but he hopes it will be up and running in October.
The proposed site layout for the annexe and courtyard café. Credit: Maclean Architecture
He told the Stray Ferret:
We’re currently recruiting a chef, café assistants and people to help in the Post Office and shop.
Obviously, the café will offer typical café food, but we want someone a bit more ambitious – someone that will bring more than just a bacon butty to the food offering.
We’re on The Way of the Roses cycle route, so we get a lot of cyclists and tourists, so I think they’d like something more than that too. But the menu will depend on who we hire.
Work underway inside.
When it opens, the café will operate from 9.30am to 4pm, Mr Wood said, adding he hopes it will extend to evening meal hours by next spring.
He added:
We’ve got good support from the community and it’s onwards and upwards now. We’re employing people locally and just hope to become a space for local people and groups.
Great Ouseburn Village Store and Post Office will open its doors once again on Monday, September 9. It was originally meant to reopen today (September 5) but Mr Wood said the revamp "ran over a little".
It will be open 8.30am until 6pm Monday to Friday, and 9am until 12.30pm on Saturdays.
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