Tesco Superstore opens in Calne

This morning Tesco opened its new superstore in Calne, which is exciting news for our town. My family and I visited during the evening and found it to be busy with customers enjoying the new store. We overheard from a staff member that it had been consistently busy the entire day!

There is a lot in the store, yet it feels open (and pretty darn posh!). Everything you would expect is available from food to magazines, homeware and clothes to mobile phones. There's also a small cafe and a petrol station. The car park seems to be laid out well, with easy access into the car park and back out onto Beversbrook Road.

Most of the 200 permanent jobs are reported to be taken by local people[1], with an additional 40 jobs created for the Christmas period. The staff were organised, friendly and seemed relaxed - which is brilliant for such a busy first day.

As we follow a vegan diet, I imagine that we'll do a lot of shopping in this new Tesco as we've found in the past that they offer a good range of food options. But it's about feel too, I like the external timber cladding and inside the store feels light and welcoming, even on what was a dark and cold evening. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to returning in daylight when the crowds have settled down to get a better feel for the place. Welcome Tesco!


Now for some of the history of this project:

The original plans for the store had been approved by Wiltshire Council back in November 2013 (from the original submission submitted in July 2012[2]), but then Tesco began closing stores, due to the chain reporting an overstatement of profits in 2014. It wasn't until January 2015[3] that Tesco confirmed that the site on Beversbrook Road would still go ahead as planned.

Mango Planning and Development on behalf of Tesco submitted new plans to update on the planning conditions in February 2017[4] and development of the store happened very quickly. It was quite astonishing that these buildings can be erected so quickly, surely due to the materials used. Hard to believe that it was only last weekend (25-26 November) that we saw the tarmac lorries going in to lay the car park!


References:
[1] http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/15688760.Tesco_superstore_in_Calne_opens_its_doors_on_Thursday/?ref=mr&lp=1
[2] http://planning.wiltshire.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning%20Applications%20On-Line&TYPE=PL/PlanningPK.xml&param0=746760&XSLT=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Wiltshire/xslt/PL/PLDetails.xslt&FT=Planning%20Application%20Details&PUBLIC=Y&XMLSIDE=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Wiltshire/Menus/PL.xml&DAURI=PLANNING
[3] http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/11720801.Tesco_stands_by_planned_new_store_in_Calne/
[4] http://planning.wiltshire.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning%20Applications%20On-Line&TYPE=PL/PlanningPK.xml&param0=872874&XSLT=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Wiltshire/xslt/PL/PLDetails.xslt&FT=Planning%20Application%20Details&PUBLIC=Y&XMLSIDE=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Wiltshire/Menus/PL.xml&DAURI=PLANNING

Wordless Wednesday: The River Wall, Beach Terrace, Calne

Wordless Wednesday: Grade II* Listed Building in Curzon Street, Calne, Wiltshire

Calne Pigs: Pig Unveiling!

The statue, covered, ready to be unveiled: 

St Mary's School, Calne Fireworks

St Mary's School Fireworks were held on 4 November 2017 this year. I managed to record them from one of our bedroom windows. Please enjoy the narration of a very excited 2 year old. First excited about the fireworks, and then all the cars going past!

Book Review: Who was Ingen Housz Anyway? by Norman and Elaine Beale

This short book is a wonderful introduction to the life and times of scientist Jan Ingen Housz, who lived in Calne for a time.

While the main body of the book is only 36 pages, the authors have packed in a great deal of well written information and interesting illustrations and photographs. Beginning with the origin of the Ingen Housz surname along with Jan's birth and situation, the book progresses with Ingen Housz's rise as a smallpox inoculator and the lifelong friends he makes along the way.

From being headhunted by royalty for his expertise in innoculation to eventually self-exiling himself back in England during the time of revolution - and violence - on the continent, this man had a colourful life. But that's just some of what happened to him, not the things he did.

The book goes on to explain the experiments that are the foundation of what we understand about photosynthesis and the role of carbon dioxide in the creation of organic matter.

The book concludes with the memorial in St. Mary's Church in Calne that occurred in 1956 and describes the plaque placed there in Ingen Housz's honour.

That such a man of science spent time in Calne, but is bascially forgotten is terrible, in my mind. Such good treatment of Ingen Housz made this a really enjoyable book to read: it was long enough to get across a lot of information, but not so long as to get bogged down in too much detail.

I don't know if the book is still available for purchase, but at £4 a copy with the proceeds going towards the upkeep of St. Mary's Church, Calne, it's definitely worth buying. Otherwise, it's available to loan from Wiltshire library.