Prue Leith, CBE will open the new Bledington Community Shop and Café.

This follows 10 years of hard work by the community to build a new heart in the village. The Great British Bake Off star will tour the new Shop and Café as well as being its first official customer. On16 November the Café will give her a special complimentary loyalty card so she can enjoy free tea and coffee whenever she is visiting Bledington.

At 12.00 she will declare the Shop officially open to the general public. Pupils from Bledington Primary School will bury a time capsule by the building so future generations can remember 2019 and the exciting launch of the new shop.

Michael McCulloch, the joint chair of the shop management committee said: “Creating this Shop and Café has been a true community effort Over 300 villagers have been involved in many different ways. People who have been building the Shop look forward to becoming regular customers, and sampling goods from local suppliers.”

The Shop and Café will be open seven days a week so that it’s convenient for local residents, walkers, cyclists and commuters who use Kingham Railway Station.

The new Shop and Café is an exciting purpose-built structure, steel-framed and wood clad, designed by a local architect and built by a local builder.

The building’s agricultural feel complements its surroundings and expresses its functional role at the centre of the village.

Bledington lost its previous shop over 10 years ago and has been working to create a community enterprise ever since.