Green-fingered gardeners have been throwing their weight - and their beans – behind a village's new community shop .

Blackawton villagers turned out in force a fortnight ago to support their shop as it launched its weekly opening hours following a major refit.

Meanwhile, local gardeners have been backing the major community effort with their surplus produce including beans, apples, courgettes, plus garden herbs.

Some supporters have even been snapping up flour from the shop and then using it to bake bread which is then sold at the shop.

'It has been absolutely amazing,' said community shop committee member Ruth Coe and licensee of the village's George Inn. 'The biggest positive thing from it all is not just that we have got a shop, which is great, but that we have achieved something as a community that crosses generations and backgrounds and the village has worked incredibly well together as a team.'

Since May, volunteers have keeping the shop running on a part-time basis following the decision by owner Carey Burton to close the business she had run for eight years.

A fortnight ago the shop opened as a seven day a week business following a refit.

The community team behind the operation to save the village shop had already submitted a planning application to site a 'mobile' shop on a site behind the village hall.

Ruth said that some 30 volunteers were manning the shop – two at a time. Some have been trained to run the post office which is still operating from the shop.

Ruth said: 'You have no idea how much work it has all involved. We have some four dedicated people who have worked their socks off and a lot of volunteers who have come in, painted, fixed windows and all sorts of things.'

The shop took more than £450 on its Saturday launch.

Ruth said: 'A lot of people have been donating their surplus produce from their back gardens. If they have grown too many beans, they have given them to the shop.'

The Blackawton Community Shop Association is planning to have a formal shop opening on October 13.