Devon County Show - 2011 PRINCE OF WALES AWARD

A co-operatively-run village shop which is helping to revitalise the local community has won this year’s Prince of Wales Award, which is given each year by the Devon County Agricultural Association (DCAA).

The Community Shop at Stokeinteignhead, near Newton Abbot in South Devon, has become the hub of village life, since it was re-opened as a co-operative by a group of villagers, after the original village shop and post office closed in 2008.

It now stocks a full range of groceries, newspapers and locally produced bread, vegetables, eggs and meat products.  And almost as important is the opportunity which it provides for villagers to share gossip, keep up to date with all the local news, advertise services and events and do all the things which have traditionally made village shops so important to the communities they serve.

Mervyn Hosking, Chief Executive of the DCAA, said that, out of what had been a record entry for the Prince of Wales Award, what had most impressed the judges about the Stokeinteignhead Community Shop was the initiative and commitment shown by local people for the benefit of their community.

“The shop is expertly run by its voluntary staff, is well presented and provides a focal point for so many local activities which did not have a home when the original shop was forced to close its doors.  The Stokeinteignhead Community Shop has brought about improvements to the lives of the rural population in a sustainable manner which is exactly what the Prince of Wales award is all about."

The shop is run by a Management Committee, chaired by David Brown.

“It really all started when a small group of villagers got together one Sunday morning to complain about having to drive into Shaldon or Torquay to buy the papers”, he explains.

“We found a lot of useful information on the Plunkett Foundation website, who have been a tremendous help throughout, and took it on from there.  We were fortunate that the owner of the shop also wanted to see it re-open, and we have had great support as well from our pub, the Church House Inn, the Parish Council, school, and of course from the local people”

“If anyone wants to know what the Big Society ought to look like, then they’ll find it alive and well and living in the village of Stokeinteignhead.”

The Community Shop co-operative now has 250 shareholders, out of a village population of around 600, and the shop is manned by 32 volunteers, each working a shift of two to three hours, once or twice a week, under the guidance of the only paid employee, shop manager Tara Riggs.

Since it was re-opened in 2009, the shop has hit all of its financial targets, although David Brown is anxious to emphasise that the aim is to break even, not to make a profit.

“Our shareholders are also our customers, so there’s no point in robbing Peter to pay Paul.  The fact that we use volunteers to man the shop helps keep costs down and makes us competitive on price with supermarkets in the nearby towns, especially if you count the saving which villagers can make on their petrol. There is only one bus a week that runs through the village now, and everywhere is “up hill” from Stokeinteignhead!

“We are developing our range of products and services all the time, whether it is villagers with surplus produce to sell, people advertising functions or arranging the loan of a wheelchair or an apple press. If there is a need for it in the village, then we’ll do our best to provide it.”

But the benefits of the shop, which so impressed the Prince of Wales Award judges, go even wider than that:

“The success of the shop has given the whole community a sense of self-confidence and positive achievement”, says David Brown, “having fought and won a battle together against what seemed like insuperable odds.”

Picture caption: from left to right, Maj Ranulf Rayner, 2011 Devon County Show President; Fred Cornes and David Cornes  fromThe Community Shop at Stokeinteignhead; David Parish, Honorary Show Director.

Picture courtesy of Alan Quick, Crediton Country Courier 

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