Welcome to Britain’s kindest village: Volunteers run store, library and put up workplace, pub is locally-owned and there are even common friendship conferences to ensure aged do not feel lonely
In a quiet Lancashire village at the foot of Boulsworth Hill, lies Britain’s ‘most community-minded village’ – where locals own and run its pub, library, shop and post office.
Of the 2,700 residents of Trawden, near Burnley, around 150 of them regularly volunteer to help staff the villages’ vital amenities.
The kind-hearted villagers also organise regular friendship meetings for the elderly and offer transport to and from the events.
The heart-warming initiative began a decade ago when villagers formed the Trawden Forest Community Centre charity.
They feared the village was dying as their community centre faced closure so residents took matters into their own hands, buying it for £1 and running it themselves.
The initiative has now expanded to cover most of the village’s most important facilities with volunteers offered discounted shopping as a reward.
Molly, 51, the charity’s volunteer coordinator, said: ‘Over the past nine years local shops slowly one by one closed down and people started travelling out of the village to do things they would have inside.
‘There was always been a sense of community in the village which it felt like it was losing it a little bit at the time.’
Residents of Britain’s kindest village run their own shop, pub, post office and library and run friendship meetings for elderly locals
Jamies Hargreaves, landlord of the Trawden Arms pulling a pint behind the bar
Volunteer Moira Whittaker serves a customer at the community-owned village shop
That community spirit has returned as young and old now work hard to keep their village running smoothly since their noble coup.
Molly said: ‘Residents are proud of their home and the work they do.
‘There volunteering also gives them something to look forward to every week..’
Sara Swann, 75, is one of three volunteer shop directors and trustee of the charity.
She said the shop, which is open from 8am until 6pm, needs ‘around 90 volunteers every week to run smoothly,’ with 68 of those working the tills during their two hour shifts.
Sara, who has lived in the village for 47 years, said: ‘Some people do one shift a week others do two and some do one shift a month or every other month.
‘It doesn’t matter how often they volunteer what does matters is how they always show up and do what they can – that’s how the community works like it does.’
If volunteers aren’t running the store they are taking deliveries or looking after the accounting books.
Lynne Hoyle and Moira Whittaker, locals and volunteers who work in the community shop
Molly Ralphson co-ordinates the village shop’s team of volunteers
According to Sara in the past year the shop became a limited company after becoming ‘too profitable’.
She said ‘all the money’ made from the shop goes back into the charity.
Last year alone the shop donated £45,000, which was filtered back into the community through £300 handouts to volunteer-run groups that needed help.
Sara said: ‘The guides and Brownies took their members on trips and the primary school used the money to buy some new planters.
‘Some of the money also went to the mountain rescue so they could get some new equipment.’
The shop’s produce is locally sourced with meat from the local butcher and bread and pastries from the local bakery arriving fresh every morning.
Sara says she has seen many friendships come out of volunteering at the shop.
She said: ‘I now know more faces than ever in the village which is the same for many others.’
Volunteer Moira Whittaker working in the community shop in Trawden, near Burnley
Molly Ralphson outside the Trawden Forest Community Centre which was bought by residents for £1
‘It’s also young and old becoming friends, making each other laugh.’
One happy helper said: ‘I have got to know lots of nice people, and it’s helped my mental health greatly.
‘I always come away feeling lots better than when I went in.’
Another said: ‘A shift at the shop always puts a smile on my face.’
Members of Trawden who volunteer get perks, including 10 per cent discounts at 15 shops in the town including the local pub and the local garden centre, LBS.
After each shift they also receive a raffle ticket which places them into monthly tombola with the chance of winning a prize from a local business – this month Sara says the dairy farm is putting together a gift set.
Around the back of the shop you can find the library which Molly says at least 12 volunteers help keep it clean and tidy.
She said: ‘You always see someone in their having a good chat or sharing a cup of tea when walking past. It is really positive and heart warming to see.’
The small village of Trawden in rural Lancashire as seen from aerial view
Volunteer Moira Whittaker stacking shelves in the Trawden community shop
Just across the road Jamie Hargreaves, 35, leases and runs the village-owned Trawden Arms Community Pub, alongside his wife Sammy-Jo, 27.
In 2021 the boozer was set to close down, with plans to potentially turn the venue into flats, until a group of locals banded together to buy it’s shares raising £450,000 to keep it alive.
The father-of-four has owned the pub since January 2023 and says he has ‘really enjoyed it so far’.
He said: ‘Its starting to get a name for itself for selling good pub grub, which is what we wanted.’
He employs 27 members of the local community.
Jamie says ingredients used in the food are locally source from the village and the surrounding area.
The boozer also only sells local ales from nearby villages such as Burnley and Nelson.
Their hard work has earned them two awards including a place in the Good Beer Guide and the honour of CAMRA’s Pemble Pub of the Year.
Jamie Hargreaves, landlord of the Trawden Arms, which he leases from the people of Trawden
Inside the Trawden Arms Pub as it’s about to open. The boozer is now award-winning
The army of local volunteers who keep the community running pictured outside the Trawden Arms Pub
The couple, who are originally from the next town over, Colne, said the community were ‘very welcoming’ when they first moved in.
Jamie is supported by eight volunteers who sit on the pub group committee who he says ‘really look after us’.
He said: ‘They put in a lot of effort to give us all the support we need.’
The pub also works alongside the community centre to put on beer festivals and support other initiatives.
Jamie said that the pub being community-owned has allowed him to make the hostelry ‘thrive’ in the ways he wanted it too.
‘I’ve had the freedom to make it the heart of the community and that in itself is fantastic.’
A couple of minutes’ walk from the pub Helen Hodkinson, 62, is helping villagers stay connected at the Trawden Forrest Community Centre.
It was acquired in 2014 for £1 from Pendle Borough Council after a lack of funding left it in danger of closing permanently.
Aerial views of Trawden showing the Trawden Arms Pub, Community Hall and Village shop, library and Post Office in the centre of the village
Paul Harper, community transporter stood beside the small local bus service
She organises a friendship group which is held at the venue every other Thursday from 11am until 1pm.
She said: ‘Around 50 members of the community come down to meet up with their friends.’
‘Then to make sure everything runs smoothly we have around 15 volunteers who me help out.’
This includes drivers who ensure the participants get back and fourth from the centre without a hassle.
Helen, who has lived in Trawden for 24 years, said: ‘The residents are greeted with a cup of tea and they have a chat for an hour or so.
‘Then we have a guest speaker in like the fire services or scam awareness services.
‘We also sometimes put on other entertainment for instance a live singer or sometimes we play board games.’
Around half way through their meet-up at 12pm the residents have a two-course meal, main and a dessert, usually from the Trawden Arms.
More than 120 members of the rural community regularly give up their time to improve village life. Their volunteering mantra is displayed
A poster calling for local people to volunteer in the village at events at the Trawden Arms
Mike the Postmaster inside the village Post Office in the Trawden community shop
Helen says: ‘It might be the only time and place that residents get to see their friends, it might be the only time they get to speak to someone all week. Those who come really appreciate it.’
One resident who goes to the friendship group regularly said: ‘I feel much better for getting out of the house, it brightens my day.’
Others said it makes them feel ‘less lonely’ and that they ‘look forward to seeing’ their friends.
Helen said the group ‘wouldn’t be possible’ if it wasn’t for owning the community centre.
Back in the village shop, Michael Pace, 68, has been the Trawden Post Office counter assistant for the past four years.
He says the locals ‘rely’ on the ‘post office being open’.
He said: ‘Some people who live here don’t have the ability to drive into the next town over to post their letters and parcels its very accessible.
‘Not just that it always great to have a chinwag with the familiar faces that I have gotten to know.’
Ann Boocock, 64, who has been chair of the charity for the past five years, believes the the Trawden community is happier and healthier thanks to the volunteering.
She said: ‘The community has become more integrated. Most people now can go into the shop or the pub and know someone there.
‘I have noticed more people simply just walking about the village which is nice to see.’
‘The volunteering keeps them active and puts a smile on their face.’
