Tesco is inviting everyone to get into the festive spirit with a Christmas market at its Bradley Stoke Extra store.

The retailer is recruiting more Christmas helpers than ever this year, and has asked communities and some of their local suppliers to join them preparing for the festive season.

On Saturday 19th December, between 11am and 3pm, customers will walk into Bradley Stoke Extra and be filled with Christmas cheer by the Bradley Stoke Community Singers singing your favourite carols. As a thank you, Tesco will be donating £250 to a cause of their choosing.

Customers will also be able to sample a selection of Tesco’s finest* and Free From ranges, including Free From Christmas Pudding and Free From Profiteroles.

To help keep the children entertained, there will be market stall games such as ‘Pin the nose on Rudolph’, with prizes up for grabs.

Kevin Vickery, store manager, said:

“This Christmas our colleagues will be working harder than ever to ensure customers have an enjoyable festive season. It’s great to be able to have the Bradley Stoke Community Singers performing in the shop, as well as sampling of some great festive products.”

Photo: Bradley Stoke Community Singers performing at the Willow Brook Centre (Christmas 2012).

Source: Press release from Tesco.

Share this article:

Carol Baker reports on the progress of the town’s new community choir.

In September 2012, members of the public attended a singing event at Bradley Stoke Community School where they learnt four songs and then presented a concert. The event went so well, it was suggested they start up their own Bradley Stoke community choir.

Chairperson Carol Baker and Membership Manager Karen Jones contacted everyone who expressed an interest, arranging a meeting agreeing on their name, ethos of “in the community for the community”, for all ages and abilities and free to everyone.

Already 82 members strong, they are privileged to have people of such a high calibre as Musical Director Angela Kewley, Creative Director Emma Rogers and Pianist Robin Fry on board.

Their first performance was Meadowbrook School, recorded by Bradley Stoke Community Radio. Mayor of Bradley Stoke Charlotte Walker inaugurated the Bradley Stoke Community Singers in the town centre on Thursday 12th December where they again performed to the public. Both events were a great success.

Rehearsals are in the school hall provided free of charge, enabling everyone the opportunity to participate. In return they will raise funds at events for the PTA. New members are welcome, rehearsals are on most Tuesday evenings in term time from 7:15pm to 9pm.

Photo: Town Mayor Cllr Charlotte Walker (left) ‘inaugurates’ the new choir in the Town Square at the Willow Brook Centre.

More photos on PicasaWeb and Facebook.

Share this article:

Carol Baker, Chairperson of Bradley Stoke Community Singers, has written to tell us about the successful first meeting of a new community choir in Bradley Stoke.

A great big THANK YOU to those of you who attended the first-ever rehearsal of the Bradley Stoke Community Singers! What a fantastic evening with 53 people attending! The dream became a reality!

Many thanks to Angela Kewley our Musical Director who made the rehearsal fun, inspiring and informative. Thanks also to Robin Fry our Pianist. We are extremely privileged to have people of such a high calibre as Angela and Robin on board the good ship BSCSingers! Also, they are giving their services free of charge, for which we are extremely grateful.

Many thanks also to Emma Rogers Head of Music at Bradley Stoke Community School and Creative Director of BSCSingers for ensuring everything was in place for the evening. A massive thanks also to Emma and BSC School Business Manager Julia Anwar for enabling us and allowing us to use the school hall free of charge!

I will forward you all confirmation of our rehearsal dates and diary of events as soon as I can, in the meantime just to recap – our rehearsals will be every Tuesday in term time only (excluding some dates when the hall has been booked for private events). Arrival time of 7:15pm for start of rehearsal at 7:30pm until 9pm – if some of you cannot arrive until later or need to leave earlier, or are unable to attend every rehearsal or event this will not be an issue – we are flexible!

If members are interested, we will also arrange some social events throughout the year.

We want everyone to enjoy themselves and be happy; therefore if you have any requests or suggestions please let me know. Two ideas we have had so far is the possibility of car sharing or lifts to and from rehearsals and events and emailing the lyrics to you all. Thanks to those of you who have posted fantastic messages on our Facebook page!

More: New choir is led by a 12-strong Committee »

Share this article:

Carol Baker updates us on a new community choir in Bradley Stoke.

On Saturday 22nd September, members of the local community attended a Come and Sing Day at Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS) hosted by renowned Choirmaster Grenville Jones and Emma Rogers (Head of Music at BSCS).

We all enjoyed a singing workshop which culminated in a concert in the evening. Also performing at the concert were Grenville’s choirs – the Bath Male Voice Choir and the Welcome Choir.

The event went so well that Grenville suggested we start up our own Bradley Stoke community choir. A group of us who were interested held a meeting where we agreed on the name Bradley Stoke Community Singers. The group is “in the community, for the community”, the ethos being that it is “open to everyone, to have fun and to build on our community spirit”.

All ages and abilities are welcome and it is free! We will carry out fund raising events throughout the year to cover our costs and BSCS are kindly giving the hire of the school hall for free. Members of the BSCSingers will not all be obliged to take part in the fund raising events, it will be on a volunteer basis only. All our profits will be donated to the Friends (PTA) of Bradley Stoke Community School.

BSCSingers will be singing a range of songs all of which will be chosen by the singers themselves. Rehearsals are every Tuesday, in term time only, starting on 6th November 2012 at Bradley Stoke Community School, from 7:15pm to 8:30pm. All welcome, just turn up and sing!

Related link: What’s On in Bradley Stoke (The Journal)

Share this article: