Traders gave shoppers the high five last month with the area’s first Totally Locally Spring Fiver Fest.

The two-week mini festival, which saw prices cut on a range of products including breakfasts at local restaurants, fitness classes and clothing brands, has been branded a triumphant success as locals backed the move to spend their hard earned cash in Helensburgh.

And this week, Katharine Crawford owner of Stow Away and Totally Locally organiser, paid tribute to shoppers for backing business on their doorstep.

She told the Advertiser: “We are really pleased with the how the first Fiver Fest has gone.

“We have had great feedback from both the local independent retailers and businesses who took part and the general public. They have really got behind the campaign which encourages people to spend £5 of their weekly budget with local business to support the local economy. It is certainly something that we will look to do again in the future.’

Totally Locally is a national campaign that helps towns by showcasing shops, businesses and people.

It was started in West yorkshire in 2009 and has launched in 10 towns UK-wide, with many more lined up to take the campaign.

Helensburgh was the first town to take Totally Locally outside Yorkshire, and the first town in Scotland to go Totally Locally in July 2011.

The ethos behind the movement – which is run almost entirely by volunteers – is that if every local spends just £5 a week in their local independent shops, instead of online or in the big supermarkets, it would be worth £3.1million coming into Helensburgh’s economy.

The Fiver Fest finished with the Our Town Lotto Draw being held at Stow Away.

Totally Locally was the March sponsor of the Lotto Draw and several retailers who took part in the Fiver Fest were present to help draw the winning tickets – even BJ the resident Pet Shop parrot got in on the act.

Cat from Amethyst was delighted by the response to her Fiver Fest Face Massage offer. She said: “New and existing clients thoroughly enjoyed taking time out to treat themselves. Some of my regular yoga class attendees were persuaded to try out the offer and have become new converts. The £5 offer allowed them to do this without breaking the bank.”

Plans are under way for more events throughout the year

Eight varieties of apple, seven varieties of potato, one special shop.  Nature’s Harvest is a classic greengrocer shop the likes of which you don’t see on many high streets these days. Chris Hudspith and his team of four part time shop assistants are happy to serve you any quantity of fruit and vegetables, from a single Mac Red apple (an unusual variety) to a kilo of dirty carrots! Seasonal fresh produce at great prices, what more could you want?

Chris sources his produce locally whenever possible and stocks potatoes from Cardross, free range eggs from a local farm, carrots and leeks from Fife. Having taken your order, Chris and his team are happy to deliver your produce free of charge within Helensburgh and will deliver within a 15 mile radius of the town. How’s that for service?

In keeping with the Totally Locally ethos, Nature’s Harvest has sponsored  the Under 13’s Ardencaple Boys Football team this season. Rumour has it that they haven’t lost a match since pulling on Chris’s shirts!

31 West Princes Street, G84 8TF

Tel: 01436 898028

www.greengrocerhelensburgh.co.uk

Ian is a bit of a legend in these parts. He loves a challenge and nothing is too much trouble for Mr. Gallagher who works at SOS Shoe Repairs alongside his trusty sidekick Craig. Stories abound about the fast and efficient service, the quality of the work done and all at a very reasonable price.

Having been in the shoe repair business since leaving school Ian decided to strike out on his own five years ago and opened up SOS Shoe Repairs on West Princes Street.Apart from repairing your Jimmy Choos, the boys excel at key cutting, engraving and watch repairs. A comprehensive range of engraved gifts and luggage is also available in the shop. Always smiling, always efficient, why not give SOS Shoe Repairs a try?

36 West Princes Street, G84 8TD

Tel: 01436 670308

A massive thank you to everyone involved; the shopkeepers and business owners for being so enthusiastic, the local press for their support, the lovely Kath from Stow Away for being a brilliant Totally Locally Foot Soldier, and of course you wonderful people of Helensburgh for supporting your local businesses! (we’d give Gwyneth Paltrow a run for her money on the soppy speech front… We’re holding back the tears of joy as we type today!)

Reports back from the businesses have been really really good, reports of a very busy day and brisk service with all of the Fiver Fest Offers, and massive thanks to URTV for joining in the fun! They’ve even come up with a Fiver Fest offer of their own…www.helensburgh.tv  Check out their new video! All very positive stuff indeed, our cups at Totally Locally Towers are not half empty or even half full this morning, they’re overflowing! woohoo.

We really hope you enjoy the rest of the Fiver Fest!

Thanks to Sarah Brown for the lovely photos from the day!  © Sarah Brown www.c2w.org.uk

Well what do you know! The HELENSBURGH FIVER FEST hits town on the 17th March.

Following the message of how spending an existing £5 in your local shops and businesses can dramatically affect your town, the great independent shops and businesses of Helensburgh are creating their own £5 offers for the people of the town to get their mitts on.

So whether it is a veg box, a necklace, trip to the farm, tealights, memory stick…well loads of things that you are after…there is something definitely worth hunting down for everyone. So while you are out and about take time to talk to the shop keepers and tell them you have come to spend your fiver and make a difference to your town.

Have a peek at some of the fantastic offers and grab a bargain while you can;

New World Yacht Centre & FK Interiors,

an LED rubber hand torch with a copy of the 2012 tide timetable ( a must for all sailors)

Rhu Marina, 820586

Townhead Farm,

£5 off family visit ticket. See farm website for details of how to book.

Visits are booked in advance, are hosted and last for approximately 1.5 hrs, providing a chance to meet the animals and get a broad insight to the farm and the countryside. Normally sold at £15 for a family ticket (Nominally, 2 Adults 2 Children), £10 for Fiver Fest

Also look out for their free open day coming up in June.

678895

Let’s Party,

bouquet of balloons

7 West Princes Street, 670070

The Toy Shop,

A surprise bag of goodies value over £8, will contain sweets (not suitable for children under 3)

90 West Clyde Street, 677500

Shangri – La,

necklace (normally £7.99)

Colquhoun Square, 07731 686479

Admin Systems,

£5 desk starter pack (desk top tidy, hole punch, stapler, calculator, correction tape – normally £11.55)

41 West King Street, 671189

Stewarts of Helensburgh,

Ladies Pringle Boxed socks (normally £15)/ Gentlemen Polyester Ties (normally £9.95)

30 – 34 West Princes Street, 671543

Stow Away,

Gift wrapped Isle of Skye scented votive and greetings card

14 Sinclair Street, 674599

Expertise Technology,

4gb memory stick (normally £9.99)

20 Sinclair Street, 678484

Helensburgh Flowers,

Hand tied bouquet of spring flowers

54 West Princes Street, 677727

I Love Candy,

free ice cream with every £5 spent

West Clyde Street

Plantation,

Plant care book

3 James Street, 673846

Gogglebox,

lunch for two, adult sandwich/toastie, coleslaw, salad and cold/hot drink, child sandwich/toastie and diluting juice.

17 Maitland Street, 670909

Websters,

professional ring clean

40 West Clyde Street, 674163

Dino’s Radio Café,

large carton of ice cream (normally £7)

31 West Clyde Street, 674667

The Flower Shop,

a gift-wrapped flowering plant

6 West Princes Street, 671246

Rowan Gallery,

Berkeley Square Hand cream (normally £8.99)

78 West Clyde Street, 670721

Nature’s Harvest,

Scottish root vegetable box

31 West Princes Street, 898028

Callaghan’s,

Breakfast pack (pack bacon, packet potato scones, 6 x square slice, half a dozen eggs)

Sinclair Street, 673795

SOS Shoe Repairs,

Personalised Door Name Plate (normally £8.95)

36 West Princes Street, 670308

The Buffet Shop,

Woodall’s Breakfast and standard cup tea/coffee

Colquhoun Square, 679990

The Pet Shop,

Wild Bird starter pack plus 10% off wild bird food during Fiverfest

39 Sinclair Street, 672483

Uries,

Crown Windsor bone china Queen’s Jubilee mug

45 West Clyde Street, 672331

Pebble Blue,

Gift-wrapped set of 3 Spring Bath Creamers from Bomb Cosmetics

7 James Street, 677884

Café Rhu,

Soup of the Day, sandwich and tea/coffee

Rhu Marina, 820238

Amethyst,

Face, scalp and neck massage (15 minutes, booking essential). Also drop in price for Friday 10.30am yoga class reduced from £7.50 to £5 during Fiver Fest.

Braeholm, East Montrose Street, 07786 393765

The Scandinavian Shop,

Gift-wrapped set of 6 white reindeer tea lights

53 Sinclair Street, 673623

Pink Gallery,

£5 off scarves during Fiver Fest

28 Sinclair Street, 678848

FK Interiors,

Sophie Allport fine bone china mug with Olympic nautical theme

The Wee Kelpie

Either cod and chips or haddock and chips for £5 between hours of 12 and 2 for the two weeks

Vanity Fair

£5.00 off the Frank Lyman range during Fiverfest

Rearing rare breed pigs, Scottish sheep, bronze turkeys and a variety of chickens that, in the 2 years since they set on this venture, have already gained a seriously good reputation for taste. For every day family meals to special occasions, they’ve got it covered with free range eggs, pig’n’mix selection boxes right up to full lambs. Yum! And when you’ve got good taste and good ethics at reasonable prices, its blooming brilliant!

They’re so proud of the work they do, they even operate an open door farm policy, meaning that subject to prior arrangement they are always happy for you, as an individual or in a group, to come and check out all the good stuff they’re doing, from taking advantage of the beautiful natural landscape the animals are reared on, to feeding them with your own fair hands.

For the more hands on amongst us, they also run courses that teach the basics of keeping chickens or pigs; from choosing and buying your breed to land management, to breeding and feeding. That’s the kind of thing that will set you up to do a bit of what they’re doing.

Basically they’re pretty brilliant people that are just really passionate about what they’re doing, and that’s why they’re doing it so well! They claim that their example is only small, but their ambitions are large, but if you ask us they’re setting a massive example that’s not only proving a great success, its also one of the most inspirational we’ve had the pleasure of discovering.

Townhead Farm, Helensburgh, G84 7LD

01436 678895

01436 678895

Kirsteen, the lovely, friendly Gallery owner.

The Rowan Gallery is one of those classic Hidden Gems. Blink and you might miss it as you walk along the sea front, but boy what a shame it would be if you didn’t slow those paces and take a right angled turn through the door. A superb selection of stylish gifts, books, cards etc, which is always a great thing, but it’s when you start digging a little deeper that you realise how special this place is.

Treat Number 1 – walk to the back of the shop and wander into the beautiful open space of the Rowan Fine Art Gallery. Specialising in contemporary Scottish Artist, this place is a real find. From well know to up and coming artists, both local and from far afield the artwork here is stunning. Coupled with Kirsteen’s superb knowledge (she’s run the gallery for over 10 years now) of her specialist subject, you’d be hard pressed to find a better place for an art hunt this side of Glasgow.

Artists include Pam Carter, Gerard Burns, Laura Kearney, Mary Batchelor, Joyce Borland, Dronma, Claire Wills, Graham Bruce Richards, Garry Harper, Deborah Phillips, Elena Kourenkova, Joe McLaughlin, Bryan Evans, Ian Elliot, Jack Frame, Jack McAllister Brown, Philip Raskin, Mairi Aitken, Lee Robertson, Laetitia Guilbaud, Rosanne Barr, Margaret Evans, and others….

There’s even a monthly exhibition to keep you coming back for more.

Treat Number 2 – when you take a closer look at some of the gifts on sale, you’ll see a distinctively Scottish twist, though not the “tartan & tweed” of your run of the mill gift shops. These are local designers & craftsmen who’s contemporary work is appreciated on a national scale – all with a scottish twist (check out the fantastic screen printed work of Gillian Kyle, all based around Scottish popular culture – Tunnocks Teacake T-shirt anyone?!))

So if it’s gifts your after, or your looking for the future family Art Heirloom check out Rowan Gallery and ask for the lovely Kirsteen. Try not to blink!

Rowan Gallery  78 West Clyde Street,   Helensburgh,   G84 8BB   t: 01436 670721

e: info@rowangallery.com   www.rowangallery.com

Opening Hours Monday – Saturday (10-5pm)  Sunday (2-5pm)

It is probably only fitting that one of our first Total Local Heroes for Helensburgh is Kath, as she was the person responsible for us looking beyond our own borders at Totally Locally because she passionately believed that Helensburgh would benefit from using the Totally Locally campaigns by remembering all of the great things that are already in the town.

Stow Away is a lovely shop in the centre of Helensburgh and is home to great things to decorate your home, design your next space or simply give a trendy little gift. It is not hard to get carried away when looking for a present and to a accidentally get something for yourself while you are at it.

Everything the Kath does in her shop is for her passion for interior design…whether it is getting the lighting right, making her own design of shelving and display space or simply casting her eye of the latest trends and fashions coming around the corner…she is one of those great people that if you take the time to talk with her in her shop she will be able to add her expertise in to what you are trying to achieve…whether that is the correct present for the other half or a full blow redesign of rooms and space.

Kath and her friend Debs are currently walking the West Highland Way over the course of the year…why is it these sort of plans are made with rather nice wine involved?

Kath is proof to us that with passion for your town and the will to go out and do things – one person can make a difference to their town.

There is something special about local butchers in that the meat that they seem to provide to customers is simply much better that anywhere else…and Callaghans is no different in this regard. The passion and expertise is evident from the moment you cross the threshold.

They have been in town for over 35 years which shows that they must be doing something very right indeed. The stock a fantastic range of local meats, sausages, puddings…and don’t forget to take a quick glance at the Whiskies on offer too.

The staff are extremely helpful and experienced, so don’t worry if you think that Minced Beef only comes on a polystyrene tray in a lump as bit bigger than you hand, they will help you get the right amount…and a quality that is probably very much better…so if you are new to Totally Locally and looking for somewhere to spend your £5 a week out of a supermarket…this isn’t a bad place to start.

This shop is simply stunning…from the moment you go in you feel that you are in a small snippet of some paradise somewhere. The quality of everything in the shop is top notch but the staff are very much down to earth.

How down to earth are they? Well perhaps they prefer to  hide their lights under a bushel…but they have been Scotland’s Best Florist many times over and multi-award winners…and it is easy to see why.

So treat yourself, treat someone else and simply enjoy this fantastic shop. You get much more bang for your buck here than the foyer of the average supermarket…in fact they are a class apart in quality.

Exquisite.