The first thing that struck me as I entered Yarpole's community shop was the amazing range of things being sold.  The second thing was the number of people using the shop.

Both the village shop (incorporating a Post Office) and the cafe are located within St. Leonards church, so the work that has been done on the building benefits the entire community.  Work was completed about a year ago, including an insulated roof, insulated underfloor heating and an efficient wood-chip fuelled water heating system, as well as building the shop and cafe within the church.  The project was funded by a combination of individuals from the local community, Trusts and external funders.

The shop is very popular with all sorts of people from the village, as well as holiday-makers from the local caravan park, and manages to sell a huge number of items at very reasonable prices (a perk of being a not-for-profit venture).  You can buy anything from greetings cards to coconut milk, freshly baked cakes and wine - almost anything you could possibly need (except for nail varnish remover, unluckily for one customer who came in while I was there).

The sense of community is evident - the shop is run by friendly locals who volunteer 2 hours a week to keep it going, and the cafe is a great place for people to meet up in the morning, or to grab a bite of lunch.  It's located up some stairs on top of the shop, on a gallery overlooking the nave of the church.

The St. Leonards shop and cafe are a perfect example of how to get it right, and will hopefully inspire other communities to start similar projects.