Village shop listed for Rural Oscars

Also known as the Rural Oscars, the awards are the Countryside Alliance’s annual celebration of rural produce, skills, enterprise and heritage through small hard-working businesses.

The awards are now in their ninth year and have become the definitive rural business award to win.

They run across four categories: Local Food; Village Shop/ Post Office; Butcher and Start-up.

Etchingham Community Shop, based in the High Street, has been shortlisted in the Village Shop/Post Office category.

The region’s finalists were selected from thousands of nominations received from across East and West Sussex, Kent, Berkshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Finalists will now be judged, with a winner in each category being declared in the New Year.

Champions from each of the nine regions will go through to the grand final, to be held at Parliament in April.

To find out more about the Countryside Alliance Awards, visit www.countrysideallianceawards.org.uk