Village Shop

Orton is a great little village.
It's managed to hang on to most of the amenities that you'd wish for. The village infant and primary school is a role model to others, the community hall is just that (a truly eclectic mix of Yoga classes, baking lessons and happy clappers fill it most nights of the week), our pub is still open. Add to that a famous chocolate factory, the newly opened cafe & craft gallery and being monthly host to the original award winning farmers market & its all good.
But best of all is the village shop. Buoyed in recent years by keeping first the Post Office counter and then the bus route, surely helped by the rising price of fuel, it has gone from strength to strength. We, like most of the people we know locally, use it most days. Its not unusual to see the elderly folk of the village doing their entire weekly shop there. Fantastically Nigel and Paula have managed to combine the traditional charms of a village shop with the aspirational desires of the 21st century. You can still but a quarter of sweets from the selection of jars behind the counter - but you can also get organic Kenyan coffee beans or top up your mobile - and all whilst being served by someone who not only knows your name but also your dog's name too!
I think it's my favourite shop. Well after Joe Brown's anyway.