Stroud’s Oxfam shop is appealing for former volunteers, their families and anyone who has helped to raise funds for the charity since it first arrived in the town 60 years ago to get in touch and share their memories.
Shirley Pankhurst, of Selsley, who set up the first fundraising and campaign group here in 1965, is planning a celebration of the anniversary with Zoey Kennedy, manager of the Oxfam shop in King Street. They want as many former volunteers to share stories and pictures ahead of plans to celebrate the anniversary at the end of the summer.
“Shirley has a wonderful scrapbook of the early days. She remembers setting up the first pop-up shop in an old grocery store in the High Street, working without heating and sometimes by candlelight. Conditions are quite a bit better now, but the basic aim of fighting poverty never changes,” Zoey said.
“We would like to hear more of those memories and to reconnect with volunteers we have lost touch with over the years. We will create a historical display in the shop and invite as many old friends as possible to come and visit and reminisce.”
As well as helping people all over the world, the Oxfam community offers people of all ages a chance to make an impact and learn new skills through volunteering.
“We have volunteers of all ages in the shop – the youngest is 14 and the oldest are in their eighties – but we always need more help and would welcome any former volunteers back. Not only for the celebration day but to volunteer with us again if they feel inspired.”
Shirley and her husband set up their group in Stroud after moving from Oxford, where they had been connected with Oxfam’s first charity shop in Broad Street when they were undergraduates. They organised sponsored walks, opened the pop-up shop selling Christmas cards and tea towels and invited speakers to coffee mornings and talks.
The first full time shop opened in John Street, Stroud, in the early 1970s. “It was an awful place with a spiral staircase at the cack. We used to have to lug everything up and down those stairs. There was no till. We used to keep the money in a drawer.” A huge contrast with the advanced computerised system the charity uses now.
Shirley continued to volunteer when the shop moved to London Road and then to King Street. She finally retired when Covid temporarily closed the shop in 2020.
If you have memories or pictures of Oxfam in Stroud, or would like to join the current volunteer team, please contact Zoey at oxfamshopf2721@oxfam.org.uk, call in to the shop at 45 King Street, or phone 01453 750471.
