Our heroes of the high street

They’re the backbone, heart and soul of the community, but village stores have had to evolve to survive

- Flora Watkins

WHEN Napoleon described the British as a ‘nation of shopkeepers’, it was all very different. There were no outof-town retail parks, no supermarket home deliveries or post-office closures to threaten the village store’s trade. Today, it’s estimated that as many as 400 village shops close each year. Their plight has even been a storyline on The Archers.

Nonetheless, that phrase still holds good, as certain cornerstones of the community are thriving up and down the country, albeit in a far more dynamic form than the rather dusty, drab emporia we might remember from our childhoods.

That mercantile spirit is popping up in local stores reimagined as a sort of rural concierge service. Pop in for a loaf of bread and you may well find not only artisan as well as sliced varieties, but prescription and parcel drop-off services, dry cleaning and a buzzing cafe.

‘Today, the village store has to be so much more than just selling a can of beans and a bottle of wine,’ confirms Sarah Lee, who runs the Countryside Alliance (CA) Awards. The Village Shop/Post Office category recognises rural shopkeepers who go ‘above and beyond the call of duty’.

They’re doing a brisk trade from Nissen huts, pub car parks and even in the chancel of the parish church. They’re run by the sort of Excellent Women (and men) one finds in Barbara Pym novels, although, these days, they’re more likely to be pondering whether to invest £6,000 in a commercial Gaggia espresso machine than why the bishop has sent them a married curate.

‘In the past few years, opening up a cafe has saved many a village shop,’ Miss Lee reveals. ‘With an ageing population in rural communities, it provides a focal point for people to come together.’