AN accountant’s dangerous heart problem may prove to be extremely beneficial for a Teesdale village.
Sheer frustration and feelings of isolation after a collapse in August last year led former accountant Kirston Clulow to consider establishing a community shop in Ovington.
Plans are now well underway for the shop and she is hoping to have it up and running by late September.
The beginnings of the shop were more tragic, however, and originated after Mrs Clulow, who was an accountant in Newcastle at the time, collapsed from a life-long heart condition.
She said: “I’ve had the heart condition from birth and had an operation when I was 11. It has never been a problem though and I was very active.”
Her activities included completing the Teesdale Way, walking in the Himalayas and ambling along Hadrian’s Wall.
This made her collapse all the more devastating as it left her housebound and unable to drive. She said the feeling of isolation was particularly bad during the day when her children were at school and her husband at work.
“Physically, I couldn’t do very much but mentally I was fine,” she said. “The thing I missed most was the contact. I had a team of 15 and one of the things I enjoyed most was speaking to different people.”
Out of this developed the idea not only to start a community shop – which she believed was desperately needed because she was always running out of bread – but also to have something that had a social aspect to it.
Her research led her to the Plunkett Foundation, which assists community shops, pubs and other establishments, and to Durham Rural Community Council which put her in touch with other community ventures.
Mrs Clulow was particularly impressed with a set up at Aldbrough St John. She said: “It is not so much a shop as it is a social gathering. They run it based solely on volunteers. It was lovely there.”
This led her to the idea of creating a community shop which supplies locally-sourced, fresh produce as well as basic essentials and an area where residents can enjoy tea or coffee and a slice of cake.
Considering her own medial problem, she also hoped to incorporate visits by different organisations such as Age UK to see if people in the area might need help.
She said: “Another could be a general well-being clinic. We are not on a public transport route so it is a need. There’s only one bus a week and it is pretty useless in terms of where it goes and times.”
Her accounting background came in extremely handy as she put together a business plan, prospectuses and budgets for the venture.
Mrs Clulow also completed a market survey of the village to determine local needs and from this she developed a business plan which, she said, was sent to various grant funders. She is still awaiting approval but said she had received very positive feedback from local county councillors George Richardson and James Rowlandson.
Mrs Clulow said it almost felt as if she was back at work: “I missed that kind of buzz. It was back to business plans and budgeting. It was such a joy.”
In total, Mrs Clulow believes it will take £3,500 to install shelving, storage and tills and provide enough stock to get started.
The first real step towards the shop’s opening came with approval from the village committee on June 26 to use the village hall’s meeting room for the shop and the main hall for serving tea, coffee and cake.
“It will be wonderful for people to have somewhere to meet and have a cup of coffee and a slice of cake without an eight mile trip in a car, if they have a car,” she said.
Mrs Clulow hopes to work in conjunction with existing facilities including the weekly Deli Delivery and the regular visits by Acorn Dairy.
She hopes that the community shop will boast sales at the Post Office which opens in the village hall for a few hours twice a week.
In the coming weeks, Mrs Clulow will be hand delivering notes to every house in Ovington as well as surrounding villages and caravan parks to encourage volunteers and potential trustees to become involved in the shop.
The shop, which she has named Maypole Community Shop, will initially open for an hour between 6.30pm and 7.30pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
On other days its operating hours will coincide with that of the Post Office which is open between 9.30am and 11am on Tuesdays and between 1pm and 3pm on Thursdays.
Mrs Clulow said: “If there is a call for it and volunteers are available, we could open longer.”