Monks Eleigh Community Shop
Village takes less that one year to open award winning shop
It took the villagers of Monks Eleigh in Suffolk less than one year to open a replacement community-owned shop and post office after their old one closed. Local residents were very supportive, a committee was quickly formed, a survey conducted, donations sought and generously given, grants applied for and a redundant building transformed into what is now an award-winning shop.
Shop a great example to others
The shop and post office at Monk’s Eleigh used to be in the main street, but when the owners retired the building was converted into a private home. There was consternation in the village, a pretty place of pastel-coloured houses clustered below a little hill with the church on its brow.
Day after day, talk in The Swan was of little else but the loss of the shop, and soon a committee formed to conjure up a new one. As a dormitory village for many City workers, there was no shortage of legal and accounting expertise among the locals. They negotiated grants from regional and county authorities and The Swan offered a fine stone outbuilding, surplus to its own requirements, at a peppercorn rent. The shop opened in December 2003.
It’s a great example of what a village shop should be. Besides household staples, it sells a variety of locally produced items, such as honey, jams and chutneys. There are vegetables and fruit like George Hodgkinson’s rare Suffolk apples. Pies, rolls and quiches from The Swan’s kitchen sell out every weekend.
Mandy Coll runs the post office side, just as she did in the old place. Thanks to her, Monk’s Eleigh PO has been judged Best Community Branch in Britain. She is paid, of course, and so is the shop’s manager and licensee. Apart from them, no fewer than 48 people – about 10% of the village’s population of 500 – have lined up to volunteer for unpaid work behind the counter. Most are in their forties and fifties but with a fair sprinkling of octogenarians who enjoy spending time in a busy social hub instead of being isolated at home.
Article by Paul Barnes, SAGA Magazine, January 2007