BBCA small village in mid Devon is celebrating after raising more than £100,000 to save its local shop and preserve a Methodist chapel.
The lease on the community shop in Cheriton Fitzpaine is set to expire in 2027 and there is no right to renew it.
When the chapel next door to it went up for sale, the village rallied around to buy it.
Within eight months, 220 villagers and one local business had invested in a community share offer raising £106,100.
The community shop committee said it believed that, along with other fundraising, it now had enough money to purchase the chapel, thereby saving both local institutions.
There are now more than 300 people investing in the project, meaning around one in three households in the village is a shareholder in the shop.
Wendy Handcock, treasurer of the community shop, said the support meant the committee felt “like we’re doing the right thing”.
Cheriton Fitzpaine community shop is a not-for-profit community benefit society, run by around 40 volunteers and one shop manager.
It has been operating from the current site on a corner of land owned by the Methodists since May 2018.
Without a long-term home the village would lose its only shop but when the Methodist chapel closed to worship in April 2024 the community was given the chance to buy the building.
Mike Porter, chair of the community shop, said: “This will ensure the future of the shop, but also allow us to save the chapel, repair it and renovate it to provide a larger community shop, café and a space to display local arts and crafts.”
He added: “We are still negotiating but we believe we will now have enough funds to purchase the chapel and carry out the essential repairs.”
Terry Meakin, 91, has lived in Cheriton Fitzpaine for 23 years and said now he used a mobility vehicle, the community shop was critical.
“I can’t go out of my door straight to a shop in town. I need this shop more than ever before.”
He said “it’s absolutely fabulous” the shop has been saved and added: “No shop, no village.”
Trish Blythe, 85, volunteers in the shop and said she was pleased it would not have to close.
“This is a brilliant little village. We have ever such a lot of things going on and not to have the community shop would be a disaster,” she said.
Michael Skinner has been a resident in the village for 45 years and said without the shop villagers would be “totally lost”.
The community shop committee said it still needed to raise between £60,000 and £90,000 to renovate the chapel.
It was hoped the new community hub will open in late 2027 or early 2028, the committee added.
