A NEW community shop has been welcoming its first customers – both human and equine!
After many months of fundraising and planning, the St Dominick Community Shop is now open, seven days a week, with an enthusiastic team of volunteers ready to take their turn on the rota.
The idea was first born when parish councillor David Fry heard that the post office and shop at the heart of the village was set to close.
A plan was hatched, an application for the site on the parish hall car park approved, and a shipping container purchased and transformed from a rusty shell into a gleaming shop fitted out with freezers, shelves, counters and a till.
Along the way, £22,000 was raised through the selling of community shares, and events including an auction of promises at the Who’d Have Thought It Inn and a ‘jumble ramble’ around the village. Sponsorship and grants from businesses and organisations were also forthcoming, including from the Howton Solar Farm Community Fund.
David says that the St Dominick shop has been modelled on one set up recently at St Mabyn, near Wadebridge: volunteers have visited the North Cornwall village several times to get ideas on how to run it and what to stock.
Among the first customers to arrive on Saturday morning were mother and daughter horse riders Maxine and Nicola Batten, on their mounts Woody and Tango.
As the need for a tethering post hadn’t been considered, they were served outside by manageress Helen Eynon while remaining seated in the saddle. Helen said it was wonderful how the rusty old shipping container had been transformed by the project’s volunteers and an example of the fantastic community spirit to be found in St Dominick.
The first day of opening saw a steady stream of customers coming in, and she felt that the items they had in stock were fulfilling people’s wants. Local produce such as baked goods can be found at the shop as well as frozen foods and alcohol. Bottles of wine were selling really well, said Helen, who ventured to suggest that people might be getting ready to settle down to an evening of Strictly Come Dancing.
Helping everyone get to grips with the electronic tills was Alan Cox, who together with his wife Nina ran the former post office and village shop for 15 years. They kept it open for many months beyond their planned retirement while the community shop was being financed and prepared.
The St Dominick Community Shop is open Monday-Saturday (8.15am to 5.30pm) and Sunday 9.15am to 11.30am.