ST GILES-on-the-Heath may not have succeeded in its campaign to stop Post Office Ltd from shutting down the post office and shop but defeat on that score only made the village even more determined to retain a thriving community shop.
Saturday was a red letter day for the village when the official opening ceremony for The Kabin took place.
The Kabin is a portable building put in place next to the Coronation Hall on the site of an old store in order to replace the shop and post office which used to be next door to the Pint & Post Public House.
The villagers have raised the funds and volunteers have done much of the site preparation work and the moving of stock for the new community shop, which also contains some of the post office services and an expanded range of stock and services.
Mr Ken Hamlyn, the parish council chairman and leader of the community shop group, welcomed a large crowd of visitors and guests to "a very special day for St Giles."
He explained that an open meeting was held on July 30 last year to see if the community could provide a way of running a shop when the existing one closed.
The Coronation Hall Committee agreed unanimously to the siting of the shop and a fund was started which produced £5,000 in donations in the first week.
"This has now risen to £7,000 and allowed us to purchase this building," said Mr Hamlyn.
To this had now been added £1,000 by Torridge District Councillor Marion Perkin from her members' allowance and they had now heard the project would receive another £1,200 from the Torridge Community Fund.
He praised everyone who had helped, including Torridge Councillor Des Shadrick, to whom they wished a recovery in health.
"This is a community shop," he said, "and everybody has put something into this. We have had tremendous support and thank all who have helped."
He urged everyone to support the community shop with the words:
"We must all try and use it. If it doesn't pay its way, we will lose it."
The tape to officially open the community shop was cut by Mr Ken Carroll, who is postmaster at Chilsworthy, near Holsworthy, and also an architect whose advice had been extremely helpful to St Giles.
He said it was "a great privilege" to be asked to perform the ceremony and paid tribute to Ken Hamlyn and his fund-raising "magic wand."
He told the crowd: "It is your shop, it is a community shop and you must use it or lose it. It is your asset and your future."
Bouquets were presented to Jeannette Hendrie and to Mrs Carroll.