Our Purpose and Story
Community Hobby and Gaming Spaces CIC was incorporated on September 21st, 2024, and was set up to provide our communities with a place to enjoy hobbies and games with like-minded individuals.
Our Objectives
To preserve and make available safe and comfortable spaces for people to enjoy hobbies and games with any other people who enjoy hobbies and games.
The provision of facilities for recreation and other leisure-time occupations in the interests of social welfare aims to improve the conditions of life for the intended users.
The promotion of mental or moral improvement.
The promotion of the moral or spiritual welfare or improvement of the community.
The promotion of community capacity building.
Vision
We want to make sure that everyone has somewhere to go. Whatever hobby you have, whether gaming or not, everyone should have somewhere to share their love for it.
We want everyone to have a space they can go to that's easily accessible. We're starting with our little Coffee Shop in Heath Hayes and hope to get a larger space in Walsall soon. We then want to open more locations where they are needed. Wolverhampton could be a location to go to as it does not currently have a space for people to play.​
Our Story
The CIC was founded because many local hobby and gaming stores have recently closed, the most recent being Asgard in Walsall, Geek Retreat in Stafford, and Chase Games in Cannock.
We understand that the community's support and engagement are crucial for the success of these hobby stores and that relying solely on selling goods is insufficient to keep these spaces open.
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Dan opened Chase Games in 2016. This was a good-sized shop with numerous tables and chairs where people could enjoy tabletop games. Unfortunately, Chase Games had to close in the aftermath of COVID because of stock shortages. Dan then went to work at Asgard, which was also struggling; he increased profits, but unfortunately, not enough to cover the costs and debts that had mounted up from COVID. This closed in October 2023, just as we set up CH&GS to try and get back on track.
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For the past year, we have been trying to find a property suitable to use, but we have had many setbacks, being ignored by both agents and landlords; we were just about to give up when the little shop in Heath Hayes opened up. We knew we needed to start small again, so we went for it and we are now about to open Heath Hayes Community Coffee Shop.
Local Hobby Store that have closed:
2016 - 2022
Chase Games Cannock
2015 - 2023
Asgard Games
2021 - 2022
Geek Retreat Stafford
A good sized shop specialising in Trading Card Games, mainly Pokemon.
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A huge shop with a cafe and massive Tournament area where people played all sorts of games.
A large shop with a cafe that promoted everything geek.