Racing into 2026

Where did January go??

Suddenly we're in February and a little update is a tad overdue!

As we reported just before Christmas we were pleased to see the community library installed and populated with books. It’s been really popular and it’s lovely to see people popping down to grab a few books, and add to the collection. We even popped some free seed packets in there recently which were snapped up by keen local gardeners. Watch out for more ‘freebies’ in the coming months!

Our friends in the village book group (BYOB!) are looking after the library, and encouraging our community to enter the Warwickshire libraries book bingo. You might have seen it featured in the ‘Local Rock’ magazine that was distributed recently. Our own CBS team member Aimee is the coordinator of this great challenge as part of her day job, so we are very happy to support it.

Recently added to the book library collection is a stack of free copies of the Leicestershire CAMRA magazine high featured us in an article and on the front page! If you’d like a copy then please help yourself from the Community Library, or use the link to the article. The local CAMRA groups have been really supportive of our campaign and we are so grateful for the publicity they continue to give us.

We continue the slow but steady process of securing an agreement to sell the pub to us, but in the meantime we are working on some fun community events  and fundraisers over the coming year so look out for publicity about dates and venues. Ideas include quiz nights, charity cricket matches, bingo nights, singo bingo and other fun activities. If you would like to be involved let us know – the more the merrier!  These events will include raffles and other mini fundraisers so if you can offer prizes then please get in touch with secretary.theoddies@gmail.com.

We thought it appropriate to start off proceedings with a ‘pub quiz’ in April and will let you know details of that when it's confirmed. It'll be at the Stoke Golding Club, where the staff are being really supportive of our campaign. Get planning your teams and dusting off your quiz brains! Look out for social media posts and posters around the village announcing this and other events.

We have also got a ‘Meet the Author’ event booked in for the afternoon 2^nd May. Rosie Goodwin is a hugely popular local author who will be talking about her books, answering questions and signing copies of her latest book which you can buy on the day. The BYOB book group will be looking forward to this event – we read one of Rosie's books last year and loved being able to identify the locations around Nuneaton and North Warwickshire where it was set! More details to follow but for now, pop the date in your diary!

We are ready to launch the community share issue when the agreement to sell to us is confirmed but in the meantime if you would like to pledge to buy shares you can do that via the website. In addition, if you would like to contribute to the fundraising we can give you our account details to allow you to donate directly.

And don't forget the Easyfundraising app which is accumulating funds very nicely: whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for The Oddfellows Pub, Higham with easyfundraising.

There are over 8,000 retailers on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis & Partners, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds. You can also pop a reminder in your bookmarks or on your phone so you don't forget. Every share we get at the moment gains us entry into a draw for a big donation so if you already signed up, please get friends and family to do so too!

All you need to do is:

1. Go to https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/theoddfellows/ and join for free. 2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.

3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to The Oddfellows Pub, Higham at no extra cost to you whatsoever!