About Choose Woodbridge

Choose Woodbridge - Episode 1: What we do and who we are.
Find out what’s going on in the lovely town of Woodbridge in Suffolk with the Choose Woodbridge Podcast, supporting the town, the community, our thriving independent shops and businesses and welcoming visitors from all over the world.

Choose Woodbridge supports the businesses and community and welcome visitors to our beautiful historic town. We also manage the Christmas Lights and Fair and support many of the community events through out the year.
Find us on line
https://www.choosewoodbridge.co.uk

Socials posted daily on Facebook & Instagram
https://www.facebook.com/ChooseWoodbridge
https://www.instagram.com/choosewoodbridge

email info@choosewoodbridge.co.uk

#choosewoodbridge

Thanks to East Suffolk Council for supporting the Choose Woodbridge Podcast!

Transcript

Jan Pulsford 0:05

Hello and welcome to the Choose Woodbridge Podcast, the place to find out what's going on in this lovely town of Woodbridge. My name is Jan Pulsford, and today I'm going to introduce the Choose woodbridge team and find out about what they do, who they are, and the history behind this very busy organisation, just run by two people, John Risby and Geoff Holdcroft.

John Risby 0:36

I think if you want a bit of history, then Geff is probably much more qualified because he's been with Chews Woodbridge a lot longer than I have.

Geoff Holdcroft 0:44

Yes, I've been with Chews Woodbridge from its uh public inception as Chews Woodbridge itself. Uh I think it had its origins when the town of Woodbridge got uh 106 money for the extension on Tesco, and uh a grant was given to the town to uh offset the effect of the increased footfall in Tesco. And there was a town centre management committee at those days, and they employed a uh a manager to um promote the town. That then morphed into Choosewood Bridge, and Chris Howold came on board as the then chairman, and then um James Lightfoot, and now we've got uh the wonderful John as our chairman. So I've had three chairmen to uh to serve, so there we go.

Jan Pulsford 1:29

And uh tell me a bit more about the town manager because that was mentioned the other night at the town meeting.

Geoff Holdcroft 1:35

Well, I think one of those uh was Neil Boast, uh you know, and Love So Well, uh, and there were other town managers before that, and they had a little office in the uh employment exchange upstairs, a little cubby hole up there, and uh they literally promoted the town in those days for and e uh so they went uh to exhibitions in London and get coach trips to come to Woodbridge and promote it in that way. So uh I know very little about that. I've just got some of the archive material, but uh it's an interesting history.

Jan Pulsford 2:08

Well, it is, it's very interesting for people to know about Choose Woodbridge. Uh one of the questions I always get is well, what do they do?

John Risby 2:16

I I think in in a sentence it's it's got to be that we promote the businesses and encourage tourism into the area. That's the underlining of Choosewoodbridge. Um, and we we do it in the best fashions that we can. We have a website that's very active, we do uh newsletters, we also have events. So that there's quite a lot that encompasses both of the fragments, which is one, the businesses, and two, the tourism.

Jan Pulsford 2:56

And Geoff, you're the financial director, is that correct?

Geoff Holdcroft 3:01

I will call myself the treasurer. Okay, he looks after the money. So I I think one thing I'd like to emphasize is that John and I are both volunteers, uh, so any money that we do get from membership and from other sources goes 100% into promoting the town. There are no business overheads apart from what we have to pay to uh company's house and all that sort of jazz. Uh so yes, 100% goes to the promoting the town via social media, via the website, by printed maps and guides, and and and many other facets that we try to promote the town. And as I say, we won't repeat footfall. I think that's the important thing about the town. Somebody who comes once maybe spends some money here, but we won't repeat footfall, so it's people coming on day trips purely to shop. And one thing I would always say about Woodbridge is we want people to do three things in Woodbridge. We want them to obviously come and shop here, we want them to come and eat and take refreshments in all the many establishments in town, and then there's all the delights of Woodbridge being by the river, its proximity to Som and things like that. So if a visitor comes for the day, there's a full day that they can spend in and around Woodbridge.

Jan Pulsford 4:22

Yes, yes, indeed. And also you produce the regatta every year, which is a big thing for the town.

Geoff Holdcroft 4:30

Yes, okay. So I've been involved with Regatta since the year before I I moved into Woodbridge. So I've been living in Woodbridge for 23 years now. Uh come this June. Uh I think I've been involved with Regatta for 25 years now. Started off as the treasurer, I seem to end up with treasurer's jobs. Uh I then became uh the chairman for about 15 years. I managed to get rid of that two years ago, but our our chairman's gone off to Body Scotland, and so I'm left with the chairmanship again. So, yes, it's a full day by the river, uh, for how will we say from age 8 to 80 and for family fun. And of course, it's it's a legacy of being free on the day for all the activities, and it's been going since 1838. But with my involvement only for the past 25 years. You didn't start it then. I didn't start it then.

Jan Pulsford 5:31

Well, it's definitely a highlight on the Woodbridge calendar for sure. Another highlight, the Christmas lights.

John Risby 5:40

We started that four years ago now. Wow. Uh in fact, this coming December will be our fifth year. And what basically happened is that through the main road in the town, the thoroughfare, and up to Market Hill, we used to do the Christmas trees. There were about four foot Christmas trees, and they were attached to the walls of the businesses, um, all the shops, etc., but it was fragmented. So you didn't get a really good flow of Christmas festivity. So we decided four years ago that we would try to see if we could get some Christmas lights outside and string them around the roads, the shops. So we went cap in hand to the businesses, to the residents, and to the councils, and we were just overwhelmed that we got the support to enable us to actually start purchasing these Christmas lights. Since then, we've increased the Christmas lights to now we've nearly got probably three-quarters of the thoroughfare covered with Christmas lights, and of course, we've got Wistox and we also have Marker Hill.

Jan Pulsford 6:58

And it's absolutely fantastic.

John Risby 7:01

It's lovely to hear that when you're walking down the thoroughfare or you're in Whistocks or whatever, and you're hearing the families loving the lights.

Jan Pulsford 7:10

Yes.

John Risby 7:10

You know, it's it's a great achievement, and we're very proud of it.

Jan Pulsford 7:14

And then we've also got the Christmas Fair, which is incredibly successful as well.

Geoff Holdcroft 7:19

Yeah, I mean that's that's going from strength to strength, uh, always on the first Sunday in December. And again, people, it it's got a reputation now. Uh there's lots of perhaps imitators around, but yes, it goes from strength to strength, and we have from the thoroughfare and into Cumberland Street and up and down Quay Street. You know, we have you know, probably over a hundred stalls last year.

Jan Pulsford 7:44

Amazing, really. And then, of course, when people walk around the town, they see those lovely maps that you've done.

John Risby 7:54

We've got eight uh eight, wow. Eight street maps. They're they're round about or one point something metres square, um, and they're situated around the town, including the riverside. And coupled with that, we have a leaflet that goes with it. There's a plastic pocket by the maps, and then anybody can take them, and they've got a miniature version of the map.

Jan Pulsford 8:17

And who was the artist who did the map?

John Risby 8:20

John Roberts.

Jan Pulsford 8:20

Yes.

John Risby 8:21

Who's very famous for this area.

Jan Pulsford 8:23

Yes. Choose Woodbridge where the days are bright. We hope you've enjoyed this podcast from Choose Woodbridge. They support the town, the community, our thriving independent shops and businesses, and welcome visitors from all over the world. Do get in touch and tell us where you're listening from. And you can find us online at choosewoodbridge.co.uk