Lesbury Village Shop now open and proudly run by the community

After the closure of the village store and Post Office last autumn, local volunteers formed a steering group taking steps to re-open the shop as a community-owned and run, non-profit-taking, shop with community-focused services and registered it as a Community Benefit Society in January.

Northumberland Estates extensively repaired the shop and funding for additional improvements and re-opening the shop have been obtained from grants, donations and a community share offer.

On August 28 the village shop opened its doors to the public with a soft launch so that volunteers can get up to speed and be educated on operating a shop.

The opening of the shop has provided the village with a welcome boost as its only pub, which closed over three years ago, still has yet to reopen.

It is running with experimental opening hours to test what times would be best for trading and will be operating with mostly volunteers.

The chairman of the management committee, said: “The reception on opening day has been excellent and the residents are very happy to see the shop back open once again.

"In the coming months, the management committee will put their ideas into action so that the shop can develop, grow and prosper.”

The shop’s stock includes locally-sourced produce, including quality baked goods and fresh meats from local suppliers.

Customers can buy specialty hot drinks too including coffees made with beans from Northumberland-based roasters. The shop provides an ideal venue where they can sit and have a catch-up with a drink and tray bake.

A formal ‘grand opening’ will take place toward the end of September with the date to be announced soon.

The committee are currently looking for both someone to fill the role of a permanent, part time assistant at the weekends and more volunteers to join their team.

The committee have also taken on the task of ordering newspapers, enabling them to provide an extended service when they were previously working with the Alnmouth Post Office to provide them to locals. Newspapers and magazines are important to the viability of the community shop and the more local customer orders placed, the more viable the shop will be.

For more information such as opening times, the job and volunteer applications, and newspaper orders, please visit the Lesbury Community Shop website.