More than just a village shop: Lodsworth's sustainable community enterprise

In a village in West Sussex, local volunteers are currently in the midst of decorating their new community shop.

The ‘Lodsworth Larder’ is due to open next month and in many ways is no different from dozens of community shops that have been opening up across the UK in recent years as rural communities have sought to boost their local economies and become more sustainable.

Lodsworth Larder, though, in the village of Lodsworth, near Midhurst, has attracted an unusual level of community involvement. The eco-friendly shop, built in the car park of the local pub, looks set to become a community hub for local people, built by local people, employing local people and selling local produce.

What's more the shop is unique in the way it has been constructed, according to Martin Lester, one of Lodsworth Larder's directors. “All the material for the building has been sourced locally and it has been made from materials that can regenerate,” he explains.

The shop, designed by local architect Valerie Hinde, has been built by The Roundwood Timber Framing Company Limited, a specialist eco-friendly building firm based in Lodsworth, which is run by Ben Law – whose 'Woodland House’ was featured on the Channel 4 programme Grand Designs.

Most of the wood used in the construction comes from an area of derelict mixed coppice woodland last cut over 50 years ago. According to the local conservation group, taking out the timber to build the shop has already had the effect of increasing the wood’s bio-diversity.

The mainframe of the shop is made out of sweet chestnut, with larch for the ridge-pole and wall plates. Slow-growing ash was selected for the wind braces in the shop’s roundwood frame. For the floor, 12 felled oaks were stored and dried over the winter at the local timber merchants.

As well as raising £150,000 through its own fundraising efforts, the project has attracted grants from a number of organisations. One of these is the Village Core Programme – a joint initiative by The Plunkett Foundation and Co-operative and Community Finance, which supports the establishment of community-owned shops in rural communities.

Harriet English, project assistant for rural community shops at the Plunkett Foundation – which has helped to get some 25 community shops up and running so far this year – agrees that Lodsworth Larder is, from an environmental point of view, a unique project. “They have obviously been very concerned about creating a very sustainable and environmentally-friendly building,” she says.

However, she adds that most community shops have more than a shade of green about them. "We find with new builds especially, that community shop committees keep environmental credentials high on the agenda – from materials used to create the shop (for example Lodsworth uses sustainable wood) down to what is actually stocked in the shop – local food to reduce food miles and customer car usage, ethically sourced products such as fair-trade and environmentally sound cleaning products."

In Lodsworth's case, the community has further enhanced its green credentials by donating much of the equipment to fit out the shop – everything from mugs to kitchen sinks.

But the Lodsworth Larder isn’t just green in its construction – it will be green in its operation too, generating its own electricity using photovoltaic panels, among other things.

“We have still to switch on the electric panels,” says Lester, “but we do believe that we will be generating electricity, not only for the shop [...] but to create a small surplus that goes to the grid.”

Other environmentally-friendly features include low-energy lights and heat exchange and water recycling systems.

Interestingly for a building that has ended up as such a model of green construction and operation, eco-friendliness was not part of the village’s original remit.

According to Lester, having established through a survey that the community wanted a shop to be built, the original idea had been to go with a traditional brick building. It was only when some of the villagers pointed out that Ben Law was living in the community, and that it might be worth talking to him, that an alternative approach was considered. It turned out to be an “exceptionally successful” change of tack, said Lester.

One thing the shop was always intended to do, however, was cut down on food miles and Lester expects 25 to 30 per cent of what it sells to be local produce – everything from meat, poultry and vegetables to local charcoal.

Keeping things in the community, the Lodsworth Larder has employed a local couple to share the management, and local volunteers will help in the shop too.

The shop’s business plan forecasts that it will make anything from a loss of £2,472 to a profit of £10,671 in the first year and a profit of between £12,453 and £18,153 in year two.

Lester is confident that the community will put its money where its mouth is and make full use of the shop. “If you saw last night, for example, the young children from the village came from the school bus. And there they were with rollers and paint brushes painting the walls [...] and they’ve asked the shop’s manager for the shop to be open at 7.30 in the morning so they can buy things on the way to school. It’s that kind of involvement from the village that’s so important,” he says.

The community has ‘bought into' the project in a literal as well as a metaphorical sense – one of the ways it has raised money is by selling cedar roof tiles from the pub at a pound a go, allowing villagers and others to add their names to the roof of the building for as long as it stands.

Lodsworth Larder has also raised money through a shareholder scheme that has members in Lodsworth and across Britain – English says selling shares is a common feature of the legal structure of many community shops and is another way of ensuring the project has genuine support.

The Village Core Programme’s funding approach also requires a project to demonstrate its economic viability, as English explained: “[We provide] a grant of up to £20,000 which is matched by a loan from Co-operative and Community Finance – from our point of view that provides an essential business check, to make sure the business is sustainable and viable and not just the fanciful wish of a couple of people in the village.

“We also ask for community-matched funding. Obviously community engagement is a huge element of such a project. We have to see that everyone’s on board.”

If the Lodsworth Larder lives up to expectations and proves itself to be a sustainable rural enterprise, it could well become a model for other villages to follow.

“For Plunkett, it’s a real flagship project,” said English. “It’s a fantastic example of engaging a community – they are a very active, very keen, very dedicated community [...] For engaging a local supplier – Ben Law – it’s a fantastic example. For making sure they can tick as many environmental boxes as possible, it’s a great example. For promoting local produce, it’s a great example.”

She sums up: “It’s a lovely example of a community shop generally.”

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