"It was closed very, very quickly. Too quickly, so people didn't have time to get used to the idea that there wouldn't be a shop. It was a shockwave that went through the village," says Councillor Jill McMullon.

Many of the 500 residents here are commuters, but there are plenty who have no transport. Losing the shop left them stranded. A village meeting gave resounding support for the village setting up its own shop.

Part of the Memorial Hall, which had been used as a school kitchen, became available, and a group chaired by Mrs McMullon asked to use this part of the building for a shop. The hall committee agreed.

Funding came from Defra and the former Countryside Agency, among others. But the villagers still had to raise £12,000 by selling shares among residents.

Peter Holdstock, shop supervisor in the afternoons, is one of only two paid staff in the store. "We provide good quality, locally produced food, and also keep an eye on the elderly people in the village. Lots of people come in the shop on a daily basis. If they don't come in, we pop round and make sure they're okay," he says.

The shop is supplied with fresh meat by Mainsgill Farm, a few miles up the A66, as well as local fresh vegetables. It also sells a wide range of household goods.

Company secretary Liz Croft says there is a huge variety of customers. "We have some people who use the shop daily just for newspapers, we have some people who just buy their groceries and we have some people who do virtually all their shopping here," she explains.

But they have not been immune from the recession. Last year the shop made a loss and the management team had to examine the way it is run. "We had to put some prices up, and we had to look at what we stocked, less of the luxury goods," says Jill McMullon. The strategy worked and the shop is heading back into the black. It shares premises with a post office, and Mrs McMullon believes the two businesses complement each other.

She also believes that the long-term future of the shop will rely on villagers, not just as shoppers but as volunteers. "It keeps the community alive, without a shop there almost isn't a community. It isn't just a shop where you can buy your bread, it's a meeting place. It's a vital part of village life."

The owners of another village store, at Muker in the depths of Swaledale, also believe in the meeting place philosophy. Their shop serves as a tea-room and a B&B guest house.

"There's no two ways about it, the shop would not be there without the other two," says Alison Stringer, who along with partner Nick Turner took over three years ago.

"If you wanted to be a shopkeeper, then fair enough you could do it and you could make some money," says Nick, a professional gardener before he came to Muker. "But you can't make enough money out of the shop on its own. It makes sufficient profit to be part of this business, but in my view it doesn't make enough to be a stand-alone item."

But three businesses mean three times the workload. "We completely underestimated the amount of work the shop takes," says Alison, who bakes up to 90 scones a day. "You see a small village shop, and you have this idealistic image of little girls growing up and wanting to be a shopkeeper. But it's not easy. It's not difficult work, it's just labour intensive, especially the ordering." Before coming to Muker she was a health and safety manager working on building sites across the country.

In the shop a loaf can make a few pence profit. As sandwiches in the tea-room, the profit turns into pounds. "Someone who was totally and utterly committed to business and making money, I don't think they'd have any hesitation in removing a wooden door at the side of the tea-room and knocking it through into the shop," says Nick. "I think you have got to have some community spirit." He goes out every Friday delivering to villagers who can no longer get to the shop.

"We deliver to Lizzie who is 94," says Alison. "She's more or less blind and living on her own in a farmhouse. We are her lifeline, there's no two ways about it. Her son thanks us every time he comes to see her because he lives in Grange over Sands."

Nick says it's important to them to be a part of the community. "It's easy to come into a small community with a wrecking ball, and we didn't want to do that." The couple also provide part-time jobs for people living in the village. "Losing a couple of jobs round here would be like shutting a shipyard down," Nick adds.