Secrets of the best rural shop in Britain
On the evening of December 23, 2013, Michelle Firminger headed out from her village shop and Post Office to run a few errands ahead of the busiest day of the year. Like much of the country, it had been raining in Ponsanooth, Cornwall, for three days solid. But the shop – which she had only bought a few months previously - was secure and her three-bed house above it snug and warm.
“I came back at about 10pm and people were standing in the road outside,” recalls the 37-year-old. “They just told me not to look – and that everything would be alright.”
In her brief absence, floodwater had gushed down the steep hills that surround her shop and seeped up through the drains, turning the courtyard into a “swimming pool”.
Tickets for a local dance were on sale behind the bar, while the smell of home-baked Cornish pasties wafted down the aisles, laden with local produce
Because of the pressure of the water, at first she couldn’t even make it in through the front or back door. When she did, it was to encounter a scene of total devastation: four feet of sewage leaching out in every direction.
At this point, other businesses may well have folded. Her stock was ruined, her home destroyed, while her health was still precarious, following a gall bladder operation which had left her in hospital for the previous two months.
Yet from the sodden chaos has emerged an incredible story of community solidarity, as the entire village rallied around to rebuild Michelle’s shop and staff it as volunteers. Yesterday, it won the coveted prize of the best village shop in the country in the Countryside Alliance Awards, a category supported by the Daily Telegraph.
The judges praised Michelle (who moved to Ponsanooth from Newbury after falling in love with Cornwall and runs the business with her partner Ben) for succeeding in the face of overwhelming odds and turning it into a place of “brightness and cheer and a hub for people to meet each other”. In doing so, they said, she has not just transformed the shop but the entire village.
When the Telegraph visited last week ahead of the awards ceremony, the business was doing a roaring trade: tickets for a local dance were on sale behind the bar, while the smell of home-baked Cornish pasties wafted down the aisles, laden with local produce. An unwitting Michelle said that, because of the support she has received, she felt as if she had already won.
After the shop being flooded, it was only closed for business on one day – Boxing Day. A day later, volunteers sold milk, bread, eggs and newspapers on Michelle’s behalf from a back room in the pub next door
Of course, when she woke up in a neighbour’s spare bedroom on Christmas Eve 2013, such a rebirth seemed impossible - but when she stepped outside the clean-up operation was already underway.
Villagers had booked a skip and were pressure-washing the exterior of the shop, brushing away sewage, as well as meticulously recording the waterlogged contents inside. One had even woken at 5am to turn away the daily bread and milk delivery.
“The next day I was invited to seven Christmas lunches,” Michelle says. “I ended up having three because I felt too bad saying no.”
Remarkably, considering the scale of the destruction, she was only closed for business on one day – Boxing Day. By December 27 the owners of the village pub, The Stag Hunt Inn, had allowed volunteers to sell milk, bread, eggs and newspapers on Michelle’s behalf from a back room.
“People here just seem to have this philosophy of helping each other out,” says Usha James, who runs the pub with her husband. “And Michelle needed our help.”
By February, local couple Jeff and Glenys Powell had erected a shed on their drive to provide a temporary home to the shop. In April, this was joined by a portable Post Office.
Finally, on a Tuesday morning in November, 11 months after the flood, the shop re-opened. On the wall was a mural bearing the handprints of everybody who helped with the clean-up. Its signs were hand-painted by an elderly local woman, who has recently passed away.
Michelle is renowned locally for the work she does in the community. Last year for the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations she helped arrange a celebration lunch of 470 people on the local playing field, making it the largest street party in Cornwall to mark the day.
Aside from her shop duties, on any given day, she can find herself looking after stray dogs, jump-starting cars with flat batteries, and checking up on the more elderly residents in the village. Customer and volunteer Sandy Whyte, 74, tells me how she has even arranged for him to have his house refurbished. “She is like a daughter to me,” he says.
“We have older people coming in who might not even necessarily buy something each time but they but just want to have a chat,” explains Michelle. “The shop has become almost the first port of call for people that want help and support.”
Running the business has become more of a vocation than a job. And just as the villagers of Ponsanooth have shown her how much they value their local shop, serving them, she says, is the greatest honour of all.
For more about the Countryside Alliance Awards, go to countrysideallianceawards.org.uk/caa
