June 2012

The residents of a small village in West Devon are putting the finishing touches to their new community-owned shop – thought to be the first in the UK to be sited underground.

The Burrow in Exbourne is a unique shop, post office and cafe buried in a sloping field in the centre of the village. Sheep could safely graze on its roof, once the grass has regrown. It is set to open for business on 25 June with an official opening by local MP Mel Stride on 6 July.

Exbourne & Jacobstowe Community Association Ltd, the democratically controlled organisation that owns the shop, is using a loan from Co-operative & Community Finance to stock and furnish the new premises.

For the last 10 years the association has been running a temporary shop, which was open a few days a week, from the village hall. At night all the stock had to be put away in a store cupboard. The new premises has 145m2 of internal floor space and an external courtyard of 20m2 – room for a great deal of extra stock.

The association’s secretary Sally Hordern said: “The Burrow will sell as much local produce as possible. We aim to source fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, dairy produce, bread and cakes from within 15 miles of Exbourne. We will also be stocking local arts and crafts goods. We want the Burrow to help regenerate the local economy.”

When the last shop (and post office) in Exbourne closed in December 2001, members of the local community, which had already been severely hit by the foot and mouth disease crisis that year, took action. They quickly set up a temporary shop and post office facility while they started to plan for a permanent solution. It took much longer than anyone had expected.

For various reasons it proved impossible to find suitable permanent premises in the village, and then a local architect, Steve Blakeman, suggested the underground shop. This unorthodox solution introduced a number of financial, legal and bureaucratic difficulties, but it also inspired the local residents to succeed. They raised a large amount money from a wide range of sources to progress the project and finally drew down the loan from Co-operative & Community Finance as the new building was nearly complete.

Ian Taylor said: “It’s taken a long time for this highly unusual project to reach completion and I don’t think it would have happened at all if it wasn’t for the determination of the people in the community association. They’ve overcome many obstacles to ensure that this small rural population has a useful and unique local resource.”

Work has started on a new ‘super green’ building for the only shop in the North Cornwall village of St Tudy, thanks to financial assistance from us. The community-owned shop is expected to move into the new premises at the end of August.

The new shop will provide a Post Office facility, and will stock produce – both food and crafts – sourced locally where possible. The shop currently has over 50 volunteers, one – Ivy – worked in the previous shop for over 50 years. The new structure will be timber framed with a slate roof, and is being built to high efficiency and environmentally friendly specifications.

Upon hearing that the old shop would close in April 2011 a team of local volunteers came together to establish the community owned shop, which is temporarily operating from the old shop’s premises and has been trading profitably for over eight months.

The new shop will serve St Tudy’s 520 residents, as well as 200 people from the neighbouring parish of Michaelstow and tourists from a nearby holiday park. St Tudy has over 150 residents over the age of 65, so the enhanced services of the shop will aim to serve the needs of this less mobile group of locals.

Les Eastlake, one of the shop’s directors, said: “The volunteers we have are superb, the shop has really pulled the community together. People really enjoy coming to and working here. New people have moved to the village and have been eager to volunteer, as it integrates them into the community.

“The endorsement and support we have received from organisations like DEFRA and Co-operative & Community Finance has been invaluable. Their support maintains the viability of rural communities, and we would not have been able to proceed with our project in this way without it.”

The loan from Co-operative & Community Finance supports grant money from DEFRA and £50,000 raised by St Tudy locals in a community share issue and through fundraising events.

Ian Taylor said: “The St Tudy Community Shop is one of the best groups I have come across in terms of their skills and enthusiasm, and the great amount that they have achieved. So many people in the village are involved and excited, and the great enthusiasm and drive for the project spreads throughout the entire community.”