Community, friendly faces and business owners who “make your day” are why people love Bingham. Traders, shoppers and residents have told Nottinghamshire Live what retail and living in the market town is like.
Bingham is home to approximately 10,000 people. The town, in the borough of Rushcliffe, is home to many independent businesses, four schools and churches.
In the Market Place - where there’s a butcher, greengrocers, coffee shop, Co-op, pet store and more - people spoke highly of the town. Susan Johnson, 65, lives in Bingham.
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Now retired, the ex-estate agent said: “Bingham’s wonderful. Whenever I go shopping I always end up chatting with someone whether I know them or not. In such a small town, we do have a lot - I wouldn’t go anywhere else to shop for my daily bits and bobs."
Susan added: “I’d say I go to the greengrocers the most - and in the precinct there’s a nice chippy that I go to some Fridays. Not much happens here, it’s fairly quiet and that’s how I want it to stay!”
The greengrocers, Raw, located on Market Place, is the only one in the town. The family business has been there for 14 years.
Andy Hawkins, of Raw, spoke about what it’s like to work in the area. He said: “The town is fabulous and growing. There’s 100 more houses getting put up, a brand new estate.
“Business for us has always been good. We’re the only greengrocers and we specialise in other vegan and vegetarian products.”
The shop also does refills in washing up liquid, body wash and hand wash. Andy said the system is “massively popular” and the shop has saved thousands of washing up liquid bottles.
Andy added: “We’ve got the butchers, a really good pet shop and it’s a nice community. There’s the Handicentre, too, which fixes watches.” The butcher's shop, Clive Lancaster & Sons, on Eaton Place, has been there for more than 30 years.
Owner Clive Lancaster said: “We’re doing reasonably well. Parking's an issue which makes things difficult.
“We do a lot of offers here, buy a kilo and you get half a kilo for free. People come in and they’d buy a month's worth of what they need and then we won’t see them for a few weeks but if you do it like that, it’s cheaper than the supermarkets.”
Clive works with his two sons. He added: “I’ve been here for 30-plus years and had ups and downs over the years but that’s business.”
On the precinct, there’s a chip shop, tanning shop, Greggs and more. Kate Stephenson works at the Style Room and spoke about how business is going currently.
She said: “It’s going alright, I think we’ll have to work hard to stand still. We’re lucky in the community and have a loyal following - we’re constantly looking for new customers.”
The Style Room opened in November 2019, just before the pandemic. Kate added: “We didn’t have time to establish ourselves. All you could do was go for a walk so what I did, even though the shop was closed, was come in and change the display so people could see it when walking past.
“There was a Valentine's Day display and a Mother’s Day display even though the shop was closed.” Lucy Allen, 35, from Bingham, is a busy nurse.
She said: “On days when I do get to browse around, it’s great. Bingham’s a quiet area.
“It’s not too far from Nottingham city centre but it’s obviously so much different so if people don’t like cities and the busyness of them, Bingham would be the ideal place to live. Every time I come here, you walk into any shop and the owner will just make your day."
Lucy added: "The owner of the cafe next to Raw is lovely and I've been into the butchers a few times. It’s [Bingham] quite an underrated area too. You don’t ever hear much about Bingham.”
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