A SHOP staffed by dozens of volunteers has opened in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, eight years after the last village store closed.

More than 100 local people have been involved in setting up the £150,000 store, situated behind the village hall, which has opened for business after years of planning.

Although there is a paid manager, all the other work will be done by volunteers.

The stock includes honey, wine, bread, cards and allotments produce from the village, plus flour from Wantage, wool from Didcot, meat from Cholsey and eggs from Milton.

Shop chairman Celia Collett, who started campaigning to keep a shop in the village in 2002, said the project had brought the village together.

She said: “There are 60 volunteers on shifts, just for one or two hours each. On top of that, we still have lots of people still helping in the background.”

She added: “It has given the village a new centre. We have an excellent pub already, but now children can come in and buy their sweets here — which is wonderful in their own village.”

The shop. in an extension at the back of the village hall, is open from 8.30am to 6pm on weekdays, 9am to 1pm on Saturdays and 9am to midday on Sundays.

Villagers raised £70,000 of their own money through a local share issue to help fund the new shop.

A formal opening, by journalist and TV presenter Charlie Brooker, whose parents live in the village and whose grandmother used to run the Church Lane sweet shop, and Ron Wood, the former village schoolmaster whose sister ran the general stores, will take place on October 2.