A NEW community shop has opened in a Somerset village.

Villagers in Brent Knoll gathered for sausage sandwiches to hear their postie, Tim Dean, open their new store with a creative poem and an inventive song.

Tim, who has been Brent Knoll’s postie for many years, was the unanimous choice to open the newly-relocated Community Shop – to a Portakabin beside the village green and Parish Hall.

In addition to using scissors to clip the ribbon on the new shop, Tim delivered an introductory poem and picked up his guitar to sing a self-written song about “Cheddar Man”.

Having opened as an 'emergency shop' within days of the closure of Brent Knoll’s long-standing village shop, the community shop has attracted more than 20 volunteers and more than 140 shareholders. 

The community venture has traded successfully from that former village shop, which has now been sold, so they had to move to a Portakabin in the village car-park, alongside the Parish Hall and village green.

David Sturgess, secretary of Brent Knoll Community Shop, which is now a Community Benefit Society with more than 140 share-holding members, said:  “We all love Tim, our wonderful postman: but all the people who turned out to share a sausage-bap also learned how talented he is as a poet and minstrel.

“Tim loves his role as our postie, but we all know that he has the talent to be the next ‘Adge Cutler’, with superb lyric-writing skills."

The community shop’s opening event attracted huge support, with everything being sold out.

“From the moment that we opened our emergency shop, we have had amazing support from our community – as shareholders, customers, volunteers, and helpers”, said Mr Sturgess.