The Hampshire and Isle of Wight winners in the Countryside Alliance’s second annual Best Rural Retailer competition have been judged, and will now go up against other counties in the South to win an overall regional title and a shot at national glory. The judging panel, led by Countryside Alliance Southern Regional Director Sara Rutherford and Countryside Alliance Hampshire County Chairman, Luke Axel-Berg have chosen the following category winners for Hampshire:

Best Local Food Retailer – Briddlesford Farm Shop, Isle of Wight. Sara says: “Visit Briddlesford Lodge Farm and you are in for a real treat.  As well as running a much admired dairy herd and popular Bed and Breakfast, in less than a year the Griffin family have also converted a milk shed which is now home to a thriving Farm Shop. The excellent range of local produce has increased and every effort is made to encourage and inform customers – information on origin of produce, recipes, health benefits and environment issues are all evident in this local community farm shop”

Best Shop / PO – Abbotts Ann Store and Post Office. In April 1999 the residents of Abbotts Ann formed The Abbotts Ann Village Shop Association Ltd, whose main objective was to provide and retain a village shop & Post Office for the benefit of the villages and surrounding area, as a community venture. Sara says: “ From its Grand Opening in 2002 Abbotts Ann has grown into a thriving community hub which supports the village and surrounding communities. The store is welcoming, well stocked, delivers to the housebound and boasts its own car park!  The store hosts special events, promotes local producers and according to locals is so good it is rarely necessary to shop outside of Abbotts Ann. It is an absolute credit to the village and a deserving winner in this category”.

Best Diversification –Suthwyk Ales. Martin Bazeley has been a dairy and arable farmer for over 25 years. In 2000 Martin introduced to his dairy farm an innovative diversification project that have gone from strength to strength and without detriment to the core dairy production. Martin & Audrey Bazeley have demonstrated what can be achieved to make best use of spare arable acreage and redundant farm buildings to set up successful businesses that run alongside the farms primary activities. The business sells beer and cider sourced from micro-breweries across England and Wales (virtually all in Hampshire) including their own range of Suthwyk Ales which is produced from barley grown on the farm. The business supports and sponsors the local hospice and other charitable organisations and one of the benefits to Southwick itself has been the restoration of this ancient monument, which has has been entirely due to Martin’s effort.

Best Traditional Business – Robjents, Stockbridge. Situated in the market town of Stockbridge Alistair Colebrook’s Robjent’s fishing tackle, shooting and country-clothing shop is a most wonderful Aladdin’s cave for the country pursuits.  Alistair’s first hand knowledge of the countryside and country sports is evident in the quality and choice of the range that Robjent’s stocks.