Cwmdu Inn, Shop And Post Office

www. cwmdu.org
Cwmdu is a tiny village in Carmarthenshire, situated seven miles north of Llandeilo and two miles south west of Talley.

A warm welcome, complimentary coffee and friendly chat awaits you at Cwmdu shop and Post office - open Tuesday to Saturday mornings from 9. 30 am.
Situated in an historic building owned by the National Trust, the Cwmdu Inn, shop and Post Office is run by the community and supported by volunteers. The Inn is open each evening from Wednesday to Saturday, inc, with a more limited service during shop opening hours.
We offer a wide range of goods, from store-cupboard staples like fresh local eggs and bread, to toiletries, pet food, batteries and light bulbs.
The refrigerator is stocked with the usual dairy products, plus hand-made pies and fresh meat from a local butcher.

We also carry speciality items such as the Wessex Mill range of bread making flours, and products to suit many dietary requirements.
We like to stock products that are fair-trade and locally-sourced whenever we can. Fresh bread is hand-baked for us in Llandeilo, and also delivered from a local bakery in Carmarthenshire. Honey, seasonal strawberries and award-winning goats’ cheese come from the neighbouring village of Talley, and pretty bouquets of cottage garden flowers come from Capel Isaac, just down the road.

As well as the usual postal services, we offer banking facilities (such as cash withdrawal and cheque deposit for participating banks), phone top-up, foreign currency ordering and utility bill payment.
There’s free wi-fi, and a comfy lounge with an ever-growing library available for all to use.

It’s not only the residents of Cwmdu who enjoy the facilities and the many activities that go on here, though. People from far afield also enjoy what Cwmdu has to offer and we hope they will continue to do so for many years. If you use the shop and pub, or enjoy coming to our events, feel free to come to our meetings (on the first Thursday of every month) and join in planning the next big thing!
The venue is also available to hire for private functions like birthday parties, courses and fundraising events. Please contact us to discuss your plans - 01558 685 088 or cwmduinnevents@yahoo. co. uk.

History
The shop is part of the terrace at the heart of the village. It’s flanked by a small chapel and vestry, which was once the village school. At the end of the terrace is the village inn, originally selling home- brewed beer.
It’s been a shop since the 1840s, selling everything the community required. In the 1861 census the owner was described as a ‘Master Tailor keeping four hands, grocer, linen and woollen draper and inn keeper’. The post office opened in 1896.

Three generation of the Griffiths family ran the business from the 1840s. The last one, Annie Griffiths, ran the pub and shop for 50 years till shortly before she died in 1987, leaving the terrace falling in to disrepair.
The National Trust bought the terrace in 1991 because it is an unusual building type for its location in rural Wales. They renovated the building, restoring the old inglenook fireplace in the restaurant and the character of the terrace.
Between 1994 and 2000 the business was leased to a series of tenants. In May 2000 the tenants - the fifth in six years - gave in their notice, leaving the terrace with an uncertain future. At that stage the National Trust recognised that the business as a whole – cottages, shop, bar and restaurant - was barely viable. With this in mind, Cymdeithas Cwmdu formed a partnership with the National Trust to run the shop, post office, pub and restaurant, ensuring the continuation of these facilities for the future.
Cymdeithas Cwmdu
Cymdeithas Cwmdu is the community group set up in 2000 to maintain the special quality of the village, by sustaining the pub, shop and post office as valuable community facilities. We organise social events like the annual fete, boat race and apple day, as well as running Tafarn Cwmdu as a community enterprise. These events help to increase the turnover of the shop and the pub.
Tafarn Cwmdu
Tafarn Cwmdu is the not-for-profit trading arm set up by Cymdeithas Cwmdu to manage the business. By running the enterprises as one, we can afford to employ bar people and a shop keeper to keep things running smoothly.
Cwmdu Inn features in CAMRA’s 40th edition of the Good Beer Guide. The bar carries a great range of ciders and sells very good locally-made pies to enjoy with your pint. In winter, the fire is lit in the inglenook, creating a warm welcome.
The restaurant and fully equipped kitchen are available to hire, for food nights or functions. Please contact us for more details.