​A community-run village shop has been rated as the best in the south west.

The Galleries Shop and Cafe at Freshford is in the national final of the Countryside Alliance Awards, and was just pipped to the post in another awards initiative organised by the Telegraph Magazine.

The shop which opened in August 2009 was judged Best Village Shop/Post Office in the south west section of the alliance pressure group’s awards.

It will find out whether it is national winner at a House of Lords reception at the end of next month.

The Galleries was also second in the corner shop category of the magazine’s National Small Shop Awards.

Forecast to just break even at the end of its third year of trading, the shop made an £8,000 surplus in its first year, which is being spent on local projects.   

The Freshford and Limpley Stoke Community Association, which officially owns the shop, has allocated £2,000 to improving pavements at Crowe Hill and Church Lane to make it safer to walk to Freshford School from the neighbouring village.  Further projects include improvements to the two village halls.

Shop coordinator Gitte Dawson said it had created a real community focus.  

“There is strong community involvement – some 40 residents work regularly in the shop, and an active committee of nine manage it and find new interesting things to stock and better ways of making them available to customers.  As a result, anyone visiting the shop or café is sure to find someone there they know to chat to – in the café, in the queue, or behind the counter.”

Shop manager Christine McKenzie added: “Lots more people now know each other in the two villages than did before, and I hear that people currently renting houses in Freshford and Limpley Stoke on a temporary basis are looking to buy strictly within the two villages.  It all really works.”  

The shop committee communicates – and exchanges experiences – with many other community shops and Mrs Dawson added: “We enjoy having others visit to see how we do things.  We want to help everyone achieve what we have.”