We all want to try and shop local as much as possible right, and in the current times now more than ever. But what if, for whatever reason, you can’t get into town and visit the High Street or get to the local market? How can we continue to support local this Christmas whilst shopping online?

This is where THE HENLEY CIRCLE comes in. It’s a brilliant local site with loads of local traders and producers you can support, that you can order from directly AND get it delivered too. How great is that! We love the Henley Circle and all that it stands for.

It supports local businesses whilst enabling the local community to continue shopping with them even if things are a bit difficult, and who know what’s going to happen in the coming weeks?

So why not check out the site, have a browse and shop local online www.henleycircle.org.uk

We also caught up with the founder of THE HENLEY CIRCLE, Linda Nugent and asked her how Henley Circle came about

When the news of the lockdown came and communities were pulling together I watched the local key support groups being born.  I say being born because it was to me a rebirth of society in the face of adversity, unrivalled since world wars and the disasters many of us have never witnessed.

I wondered what I could do to help and a local organic farmer, Bosley Patch, asked me about the possibility of doing a shopping site for their circle producers.  This would be very time consuming, costly and I really didn’t want to charge.  I had an epiphany, why not create a market place with a multi-vendor platform?  This could be accessed by anyone who had something to sell, which the community could buy and have products delivered or collected during lockdown.  And so six weeks later and many sleepless nights, Henley Circle launched.

The ethos of the site is to provide an online shopping experience similar to walking through a farmers market or a mall.  All the stores are locally based or have a direct connection to Henley, with or without a physical shop or current shopping site of their own.

Having a free storefront is also an opportunity for new startups or small businesses with few products, to get selling online thereby nurturing the local economy.

It’s really easy to buy from Henley Circle.org.uk.  All you do is add items to your shopping cart and pay using PayPal,  this goes straight to the seller with an order confirmation just like ordering from any online shop.  Some stores are browse and contact to order from their dedicated Store Pages.  Many stores on the site offer gift wrapping services for delivery to the rest of the UK too! So perfect for Christmas shopping.

I have discovered Henley has an astonishing array of producers and artisans that I have never heard of before now and hope Henley Circle can help get them noticed.

Linda Nugent