Grant joy for village shop fundraisers
£127,000 has been awarded to a shop in Devizes for a new building
Wiltshire residents who have been fundraising for a new village shop have hit their target after receiving a major grant.
All Cannings Community Shop Society has been awarded £127,910.40 from Wiltshire Council’s Rural Hubs Grant Scheme – with the news coming in that the month the shop was celebrating its 20th anniversary.
The grant means that a new shop building, for which the society was granted planning permission in 2024, can now be constructed.
There had been a village shop in All Cannings for over 100 years before the Post Office and Village Store closed in 2002.
With a convenient place to shop – and also a vital community hub – gone, villagers rallied to open a new not-for-profit, volunteer-run store, which opened its doors on December 16, 2005.
The shop was constructed from two second-hand portable buildings, which in recent years have started to show signs of rot.
Villagers set themselves a fundraising target of £280,000 to replace the shop.
And this week the shop’s committee was told it had been successful in its application to Wiltshire Council’s Rural Hubs Grant Scheme.
The award means that other pledged grants – made on condition of the fundraising campaign being successful – can now be drawn down, and financial pledges from villagers can be collected.
“In November the total on our fundraising thermometer outside the shop stood at £180,000,” said a delighted and relieved Peter Cooper, chairman of the All Cannings Community Shop Society.
“In one leap we shot through the top.”
The shop will close on January 4 for an estimated three months.
The old buildings will be demolished and a new timber-framed eco-friendly structure – larger than the existing building – will be assembled over innovative screw foundations.
“We’re told the new shop building could last us for the next 100 years,” said Mr Cooper.
The last volunteer shift in the current shop building will be conducted by volunteer John Mead (pictured right), who manned the first shift back in 2005.
Cllr Helen Belcher, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for economic development, regeneration and assets, said: “Congratulations to All Cannings Community Shop Society for securing this funding.
“Our Rural Hubs Grant Scheme was created to sufpport the services, facilities and businesses that keep Wiltshire’s villages thriving, and this award will strengthen an important community asset.
“I’m delighted to see local groups using this investment to deliver long-term benefits for residents.”
Other successful applicants include:
Grown Green Ltd
Seend Lye Recreation Field
Seend Trust
Chickpea (QH) Limited (Queens Head pub in Broad Chalke)
Pitton Community Store
Winsley Cricket Club