Grant awarded as community comes together to save shop and post office in Derbyshire village

When, after twenty years, the owners of Mayfield Stores in Holloway decided to retire, it looked as if the village was about to lose another facility after other shops and pubs closed in recent years.

This was of particular concern as Mayfield Stores also houses the Post Office - a service that Holloway and other surrounding villages depend upon.

The longterm closure of Leashaw, the main road linking Holloway to Crich and down to the A6, due to a landslip, made the problem worse and vulnerable residents became increasingly worried about the loss of access to services.

Soon residents came together and hosted a meeting for volunteers who would be able to help the shop and post office open. Over 100 vilagers attended with 40 of them offering donations or loans. The villagers rallied round and put together a proposal to buy the building and keep it open as a Community Shop.

The owners, who had built the business into a community hub and wanted it to stay that way, offered it to the group at a favourable price, but the residents needed to raise over £750,000 to make the proposal financially viable.

Fundraising and a detailed financial projection showed a potential shortfall of around £250,000, and so with the shop due to close on 1st July 2023 the group submitted a bid to the Community Ownership Fund, operated by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), in time for a deadline of 12th July - with the aim of having Holloway Community Shop classed as a Community Asset.

The initial application was unsuccessful, and the group resolved to put a further bid together in time for the next round of funding, with a deadline of October 12, 2023. Sarah Dines MP was glad to give her support to the project, and now the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced that Holloway Community Shop has been awarded £300,000 of this Government funding.