The nearest Hadleigh gets to Black Friday

The grand re-opening of the Hadleigh Thrift Shop, mayor and all

We braced ourselves to face the winter weather today, in a trip down the road for the grand re-opening of the Hadleigh Thrift Shop, which has moved all the way to the distinctly bigger ship next door.

It’s all go in Hadleigh I tell you – there was a town crier, the mayor, a local councillor, the vicar, the cast of the local am dram panto in full costume, a boiler engineer dressed as the Gruffalo, a whole team of purple-clad majorettes and Jan and John in hi-vi jackets poised to stop the traffic.

No shop opening is complete without a town crier and the cast of an am dram panto.

They even wheeled out Griff Rhys Jones as a local Suffolk celebrity, complete with jaunty beard and Father Christmas hat, to uncork the champagne and cut the ribbon.

Griff brought his own basket of goods to donate, urged everyone to use the Thrift Shop for their Christmas shopping, and compared the large crowd of frost bitten shoppers to the nearest Hadleigh gets to Black Friday. I think he was lucky not to be mown down in the stampede to seize sausage rolls and free booze (or maybe that was just me).

Griff Rhys Jones + beard + hat.

I took my daughter along in full Brownie uniform to help the assembled Brownie and Guide hierachy dole out refreshments, and attempted to stop my son running amok with a balloon in a confined space. Sigh.

I’ve blogged about the Hadleigh Thrift Shop before, as one of the cornucopia of charity shops in Hadleigh, and the provider of the pie dish and funnel that helped stretch a joint of pork over multiple meals. Long may it continue.

Many congratulations are due to Barbara Boyd, the founder of the Thrift Shop, and all the volunteers and donors who raise money for so many local causes.