New home for Stroud's social enterprises

Co-founder of The Long Table, Tom Herbert, says they can't wait to offer their services to Cirencester

Social enterprises in Stroud are expanding their operations into a new home in Cirencester, and will move into the old House of Fraser building, which has been out of use since 2019.

The Long Table started in at Brimscombe Mill in Stroud and is now opening a second site.

Other businesses including The Bike Drop - a bicycle repair shop - will also be opening in the House of Fraser building.

The new hub is due to open by the end of October.

Work is going on inside the former House of Fraser building to get things ready for the social enterprises to move in

The Long Table, which has been running for six years, is a community kitchen that offers lunch, dinner, coffee and cake made from locally-sourced food.

It runs a "pay-as-you-can" service, which means its food is accessible to everyone so income is not a barrier.

Also inside the mill is a kids shop and a home remedy shop. Other ventures will be added once the former House of Fraser building is ready.

Tom Herbert, co-founder of The Long Table, told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: "We already do a lot of work here and some of our team comes from Cirencester.

"We see that there's both an appetite for what we offer, there's a need for what we do and there's people to hire.

"It feels very close to our heart and we can't wait to get open here.

"Amazing things happen when we eat together."

Outside of The Bike Drop workshop, as the project gears up for the opening in late October

Jason Howarth, workshop manager at The Bike Drop, said: "It's a very old building so we're levelling floors, building walls - lots of DIY basically so that we can start servicing bikes.

"Half of our business is refurbishing donated bikes, so that we can get people on bikes that aren't disgustingly expensive.

"It's not just about the charitable efforts we go to, it's also ensuring that people around here have somewhere to go for a good workshop."

There's yet to be an update on what will happen to Brimscombe Mill after its sale in February.

A statement in its website says: "Despite there not being a definitive answer to our warehouse conundrum, we want to tell our community that we are still very much open.

"The doors to the mill and all the businesses on site are very much open and are also planning some amazing summer events and well into the autumn", Tom Herbert assured the BBC.