This summer, Gilbert Stephens Solicitors is hitting the road and attending three agricultural shows in the South West. The team are looking forward to meeting local businesses and residents at the Honiton, Okehampton, and Chagford Shows!
Vicky Thompson, CEO at Gilbert Stephens said “If you’re attending any of the shows, please come and say hello! I’m looking forward to attending my first Devon shows and meeting everyone. Our team will be on hand to answer any questions that visitors may have about our services.”
Refreshments on offer to those that visit the Gilbert Stephens stand will be to the usual high standard, with freshly cooked bacon sarnies in the morning, cream teas for the afternoon and Pimms available throughout the day!
Additionally, their fabulous face painter will be on hand to keep the kids happy and everyone is invited to enter the prize draw, where a winner will be drawn at random from all entries made by those attending the three shows. This year’s winner gets to take home an awesome kids ride on quad bike!
Vicky added “Gilbert Stephens Solicitors have been part of the Devon farming community for generations, so we know a thing or two about the challenges our clients face. We’re proud to continue to be part of these three shows. They are a great opportunity for us to catch up with our clients and get a better understanding of the issues they’re dealing with. They’re also a chance for us to meet new friends and chat to other businesses, something that we’ve very much missed these last couple of years. So, if you’re planning on going to one of these shows, make sure you drop by our stand and say hello. We’d be more than happy to chat about how we can help you.”
Gilbert Stephens Solicitors offer various legal services to the farming community including advice relating to environmental law, tax matter, tenancies, sporting rights, occupancy, planning, diversification, woodland, buying & selling property and land. They have offices in Okehampton, Exeter, Crediton, Ottery St Mary, Sidmouth & Budleigh Salterton. Contact them on 01837 512100 or email – or pop in to their stand for a chat!
Last week Gilbert Stephens introduced a new ‘Sunny Days’ policy to help staff cope with hot weather.
The policy which came into effect immediately, allows all employees across the firm to take two additional days annual leave at short notice in cases of extreme heat.
CEO Vicky Thompson said: “We recognise that the recent spell of hot weather has been challenging for some of our staff. The new Sunny Days policy will help those who need to take a break from the heat to come back to work refreshed and ready to continue delivering great results for our clients. This heatwave is unusual for the UK but with ongoing climate issues we are concerned it is something which will become more commonplace, and we want to be fully prepared, as well as flexible as possible for our staff. This new policy allows us to do that.”
This morning, our team in Sidmouth will be enjoying a cream tea for FORCE Cancer Charity. It is a great opportunity to raise money for a good cause and have some delicious fun at the same time!
FORCE is a charity who provides free support and information to anyone affected by cancer at their centre in Exeter and at local community hospitals. They offer various forms of support to patients and their families including counselling, group sessions, complementary therapies, benefits advice, specialist physiotherapy and exercise guidance and other health and wellbeing support. You can read more about their vital work here
FORCE started the annual Cream Tea fundraiser in 2018 and have so far raised an incredible £22,000 with it, this year they hope to get as close as they can to the £30,000 mark. We are very happy to be part of trying to make this happen – but is it cream or jam first…?
Gilbert Stephens Solicitors were delighted to join the Pixies in Ottery St Mary for an evening of fun and frolics!
The team enjoyed getting stuck into the celebrations and giving out sweets to those who fancied them! It was wonderful to see the community celebrating together, especially the children all dressed up as pixies and full of excitement as they caught the bell ringers and imprisoned them.
Thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a success!
We’re proud to have been able to support such a special event again this year and we’re already looking forward to the next one – hopefully those Pixies will be kept in order until then and the bell ringers are free again!
From left to right in the photo: Antonia D’Alessio, Tracie Bowden, Lisa Dodd, Tasha Boddy, Karen Oliver
We are delighted to have made our first donation to JUST ONE Tree . Our donation has helped to plant trees in their reforestation projects around the world.
The seeds we funded will be chosen and planted by the JUST ONE Tree partners in one of their nurseries. Once the next rainy season is upon us, the Gilbert Stephens seedlings will be transported to their carefully selected new homes, where they will be planted and nurtured over the coming years.
It’s amazing to think that once grown our trees will remove approximately 143.53 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 25 years.
We are committed to continuing our work with JUST ONE Tree on further initiatives in the future.
The Coldridge fete takes place on Saturday 25th June and is held next to St Matthew’s Church. Here you will find stalls, children’s activities, games, music, alpacas and refreshments alongside local trader and craft demonstrations. Additionally, there will be a vintage rally featuring classic cars, engines and tractors. The church itself hosts the beautiful flower festival and dog lovers will be in for a treat with a dog show which culminates with the “Best in Show”.
One of the fete’s objectives is to raise funds to support the community, this year that includes Coldridge Village Hall and St. Matthew’s Church Fabric Fund. There will be a Grand Prize Draw to which we have donated a Greendale Farm Devon hamper as one of the prizes to help support the fundraising endeavours for this wonderful community.
Wishing everyone who attends, and the hardworking organisers, a fantastic day – we will keep our fingers crossed that the weather is kind!
Pixies once roamed Ottery St Mary and very soon they will be back!
Pixie Day is most definitely one of the highlights in the Gilbert Stephens social calendar. This lively event is steeped in local history and folk tales – did you know Ottery St Mary was once occupied by Pixies…..?
“The legend began that Ottery St Mary was once occupied by Pixies. They were forced into exile by the coming of the humans and the building of the church. The last straw was the noise of the church bells which they could not bear. As the bells rung the Pixies would do everything they could to stop them as they believed that each time the bells rung a Pixie would die. So on one midsummer’s day in 1454 they invaded the town and captured all the bell ringers and imprisoned them in a cave by the river. This cave is still known as Pixie’s Parlour.
Fortunately for the town the bell ringer’s escaped, but the pixies and the capturing of the bell ringers is remember each year with a celebration on the Saturday nearest to midsummer.”
Every year children from the Guides and Scouts groups – Brownies, Beavers, Cubs and Rainbows dress up as pixies who take revenge! The pixies return to the church, capture the bell ringers and imprison them – of course they always escape again!
If you would like to join in this fun event the celebrations start in the early afternoon with a fete which includes stalls and entertainment at the Land of Canaan. At around 6.30pm the “Pixies’ Revenge” takes place in the square and then the celebrations continue down at the Land of Canaan, with entertainment barbecue and bar.
Do you love architecture? How about pebbles? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then you’ll have loved this years Budleigh Salterton Pebble Building competition sponsored by Gilbert Stephens!
The competition is part of the Budleigh Lions Gala Week. The Lions set up the Club in Budleigh Salterton in 1980. Their motto is “We Serve” and Club members get involved in various community projects where they help either individuals or local organisations that need some support.
We’ve gathered some amazing photos of people who entered this year and we love how many were inspired by the Queen’s Jubilee. This competition was all about using natural materials to create beautiful structures, the results are absolutely stunning – well done to everyone who entered!
We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we did, and who knows, maybe next year you’ll be inspired to enter yourself!
Photo Credits: First image S. Watts – All other images Budleigh Lions
This weekend East Budleigh will have some new residents as the scarecrows take over the village! We are excited to see the East Budleigh Scarecrow Festival taking place this weekend and to be a sponsor for 2022!
Running between 11-12th June the event will be based the Village Hall from 11am to 4pm on both days. Refreshments are available to purchase and there will be a variety of stalls selling homemade cakes, books, local arts and crafts, sweets, local activities, plants and bric a brac.
On the Saturday lunchtime Rock Choir East Devon will be performing and there will be more musical entertainment on Sunday.
The ever-popular Duck Race will sail each day around 2pm with cash prizes to win and there will be a raffle run over the weekend with a selection of great prizes.
The All Saints Church bell tower will be open for tours on both afternoons of the weekend between 2-4pm with a wonderful exhibition of knitted items in the church which will then be sent to Moldova with the charity CR2EE.
The Dog Show will take place on the recreation ground from noon on Sunday.
There will be a parade of rally cars which will be displayed in the Village Hall car park and an exhibition of classic cars on show in the vicarage garden on Sunday.
There’s something for everyone at this popular community event which takes place to not only bring everyone together for some family fun, but also to raise a money to help with the maintenance of their beautiful church.
So come on down, have some fun and support your local community! We hope to see you there!
Gilbert Stephens Solicitors are proud to announce their new partnership with Budleigh Salterton Bowls Club. As one of the oldest bowls clubs in Devon, formed in 1903, it is a privilege to be involved with such a historic and well-loved organisation.
Gilbert Stephens has a long history of supporting local clubs and organisations, and this latest sponsorship is part of their ongoing commitment to giving back to the communities in which they operate.
Dana Mulligan Marketing Manager at Gilbert Stephens visited the Club on 27th May for their Big Bowls Day at which novice bowlers are invited to come along to the Club and have a free trial session at Outdoor bowling. The Club provided all the equipment and Club members were on hand to offer coaching and advice. The event was well attended and several of the visitors have subsequently joined the Club.
Dana was given a tour of the venue and a lesson in how to play bowls which was a little trickier than she thought! It was also an opportunity to view the new Gilbert Stephens advertising board.
Dana said: “We are delighted to be able to partner with Budleigh Salterton Bowls Club who are a great asset to the community and one we are proud to be supporting. It is always a pleasure to be able to support local clubs and organisations and to meet those involved. The Club is clearly doing a great job in promoting bowls in the area and we are glad we can help them in their efforts I really enjoyed my first attempt at bowls, it’s lots of fun and I can’t wait to try it again – safe to say I need quite a lot more practice!”
Tony Mackness, the Club Captain, commented “We are very fortunate to be supported and sponsored by several local organisations, including Gilbert Stephens, the leading firm of solicitors, who have one of their offices in Budleigh Salterton. We look forward to hosting an Open Day for Gilbert Stephens later in the year”.
Dana added “We wish Budleigh Bowls Club every success for the future and look forward to seeing them go from strength to strength. I may even think about joining myself!”
Gilbert Stephens Solicitors have branches in Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth, Ottery St Mary, Okehampton, Exeter and Crediton. They offer legal advice for every chapter in life. You can contact them on 01395 445581 or email
PHOTO: To the left of the Gilbert Stephens promotional Board are pictured Club members Andy Skudder, Mike Clark and Tony Lim. On the right are Dana Mulligan of Dana Mulligan (representing Gilbert Stephens) Tony Mackness and Club Member, Tony Gooding
This information does not constitute legal or financial advice and you are advised to seek the guidance of a lawyer or financial advisor to discuss your individual requirements.
