Welcome to the new Heart of the Village website

Alfred van Pelt • 14 June 2025

From the moment the idea was born to get the community to come together and buy the Royal Oak and transform it into a thriving community hub there has been information about the Heart of the Village (HOTV) on the Stoke St Gregory website. We thank everyone involved in setting the many pages of information up and maintaining them over time. In order to be able to create a clearer profile of all things HOTV  it is now time to present our very own website

What can you find on the website?

The short answer to that is ; everything related to the HOTV. And with that we mean everything from the background and purpose of the community enterprise (set up as a limited company, run by an elected management committee) to information about the trading parts of the enterprise (the pub and restaurant, the shop and café, and the events. And everything that you will want and need to know about


Is everything available on the new website already?
At the launch of the website all information is available on the homepage. The  homepage contains links to relevant pages which could be pages on the new website or links to for instance current pages on the Stoke St Gregory website or the pub or shop website. The intention is to transfer a lot of that information over to the new website and update it where necessary so in the end you will be able to navigate around just the one website and find absolutely everything you are looking for.


 Can you get involved?
Absolutely. The more people who get involved, the better. That could be by helping out with any aspects of creating content for this website and our socials. There is so much more though which you could get involved in. From shifts in the shop or pub to diy around the premises, garden design and maintenance or in the running of events. We'd love to hear from you. Email us on contact@heartofthevillage.uk

Share this news item:

Annual Health & Safety Inspection Visit

by Alfred van Pelt • 4 August 2025
Running a community business like the Royal Oak requires a lot of expertise regarding all kind of different matters. Luckily there has always been a good representation of business skills within the management committee and the volunteers who support the HOTV. Still though, for certain topics , we seek assistance and advice from specialised partners who are fully up to date on latest legislation specific to our kind of set up. With respect to all matters Health and Safety we have partnered with Citation who have recently conducted their second annual site inspection. Their report is now available for you to view by simply clicking on the image above. As you will see in the report the inspector had noticed that a huge number of observations and actions listed in their previous report had been followed up. As can be expected from any inspection in a world where rules and even perceptions of rules change over time the inspection has highlighted a list of new recommendations, further improvements and entirely new actions. Partly due to the building having undergone considerable alterations since the last Citation visit. Since receiving the report the MC has worked through the actions and recommendations and many of those you can already see put in place in various places in and around the Royal Oak. Others are in the process and planned to be in place as soon as we possibly can. Thanks to the cooperation with Citation we are in a position to maintain high Health and Safety standards at The Heart of the Village