The farm shop
The name is something of a misnomer. The uninitiated might think that the farm shop will merely be a source of fresh veg still dewy from the local farmer’s fields, but they tend to be the countryside’s answer to Planet Organic and Whole Foods, too (although without the hemp Parmesan, chia seeds and heart-stopping prices). Everyone wins; you have a brilliant source of fresh, locally sourced meat and veg and local producers don’t have their margins squeezed until their pips squeak by a supermarket.
The community-run store
It was Jack Woolley who saw the writing on the wall; running a village shop was a struggle even before a cavalcade of Ocado vans loomed onto the horizon. In many villages, the community shop has helped to solve the problem, thanks to a combination of volunteers and plenty of local stakeholders ensuring they succeed where the traditional model has often floundered. But, as everyone knows, community stores are about far more than providing a convenient source of groceries—they are the beating heart of the village. Newcomers should note, however, that all village shops need to be patronised throughout the year, rather than only after a particularly heavy snowfall or during a global pandemic.
The parish magazine
Esta historia es de la edición September 02, 2020 de Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
