Villagers will be able to shop at church

A scheme to open a village shop in a rural church has been selected by Essex County Council for a £10,000 award.

Mrs Irene Allen, churchwarden of Langford St Giles church, near Maldon, was one of more than 750 residents from across Essex who responded to an Essex County Council survey earlier in the year to establish what is important for Essex residents for  a good quality of life. Each resident who responded to the survey had the opportunity to win £10,000 for their local community.

Irene’s idea was one of four award winners selected by judges in the council’s Quality of Life Unit including council leader, Lord Hanningfield. Irene Allen told the council: “If I had £10,000 to spend on improving the quality of life for my community I would extend our church so that we could use it as a Post Office and mini village shop as we have no other amenities.”

“Although absolutely delighted to be one of the award winners,” she says, “I truly didn’t think the idea would come to anything.

“But our village shop has long gone and the village hall is used as a childcare nursery during the day and is always booked up in the evenings, so there are no longer any amenities in the village. My thought was that it would be lovely if we could extend the use of the church building in some way, perhaps as a mini-shop or sub-Post Office, and so bring people into the building who might otherwise not use it. I know there is a growing belief that church buildings should become more involved in community participation, so I thought this might be an appropriate idea.”

Work will now start on turning the ideas into reality in collaboration with the parochial church council.