Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Reviving village shops



As I have mentioned before, in my current excursions to Leicestershire and Northamptonshire villages I am often retracing journeys I made on my bike 30 or more years ago.

In those days I was too young and stupid to appreciate half of what I was seeing, but I do recall that I never took a drink with me because I took it for granted that when I reached a village of any size I would be able to buy one in the shop.

Times have changed. The picture above shows what used to be the shop and post office in Clipston. Like many other village shops it has long since closed, though most have been converted to houses a little more elegantly.

All economics is against them - a fact that even Ambridge has caught up with - but some shops do manage to cling on. Wistanstow in Shropshire is one example I have come across.

Like a lot of surviving village shops it is run on a voluntary basis and supported by the Plunkett Community Shop Network. See there website for more about this trend.

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