A winning recipe

HELEN Tesseyman is the type of innovative individual who is prepared to match her words with deeds to prove that Yorkshire’s fragile rural economy can successfully move with the times.

By The Newsroom

Published 5th Apr 2013, 10:51 BST

The farmer’s wife and young mother has taken over the post office and village shop in Marton Cum Grafton near Boroughbridge after long-time and much-loved shopkeeper Lee Stott passed away last year following a short illness.

They were big boots to fill and Mr Stott’s death could easily have seen the end of the line for the shop due to the reluctance of people to take on such ventures at a time when village amenities across the county are fighting for their very survival.

Yet, by making the shop more accessible to mothers with prams, choosing to stock a wider selection of local produce and baking a wide selection of mouth-watering cakes to sell, Mrs Tesseyman appears to have created a winning recipe that could, and should, be replicated in other villages and show that there is still a viable alternative to the supermarket and online retail revolution.

Yorkshire Boroughbridge