Our story

The Refresh shop in the Chiltern Shopping Centre has recently moved into a larger, brighter unit, and is now open 6 days a week. It sells a range of arts and craft materials at low cost, because all the materials are donated by local people and businesses, to avoid it going to waste. When it first opened over 2 years ago, it was initially open just on Saturdays, so a lot has changed, with the help of a dedicated team of staff and volunteers.

The shop is run by Wycombe Environment Centre, a local charity that was set up way back in 2001 by the visionary local leader Frances Alexander, who understood the motto ‘think global, act local’. They also run the local repair cafe.

The Refresh shop replaced the previous Council-run Wycombe Resource Zone, on  the Cressex Business Park. The Council provided funding through the Community Boards and its Waste Service to allow Refresh to be set up as a social enterprise. 

Funding was also attracted from the Council’s waste contractor, Veolia, and the Clare Foundation. More recently the project has attracted funding from the National Lottery and Garfield Weston, with local support too from the Penn Trust and the Roland Callingham Foundation.

The next phase

The Refresh shop has recently moved into a much better unit, still in the Chiltern Shopping Centre, and the landlord, Dandara, has confirmed a lease extension until the end of 2025. Since September this year the shop is now open 6 days a week, and has become financially self-sustaining, thanks to the landlord's generosity of charging only a service charge and no rent.

WEC has been able to achieve all of this due to the hard work of our staff and volunteers over the last two years, helping to fast track the project to become financially self-sufficient on a volunteer basis, and in order to move forward and thrive within our community, we have taken the decision to become an entirely volunteer led organisation.

The ambition remains to cluster other share and repair, mend and lend services around the Refresh shop and repair café, which is held once a month in All Saints Church in the middle of High Wycombe, and is hoping to set up a library of things, alongside other initiatives.

The plan is to turn the new shop into a hive of activity for crafting and upcycling, with workshops and activities, helping us learn new skills, make new friends, bring communities together and enjoy living in a way that is lighter on the planet.