Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2008/January 2009 | Page 100

life

FOOD & DRINK

Photo left: The newely refurbished store
at Chale Green.
Above: Owners Vernon Tyerman & Jenny
Kerry

Storing the heart
of the village
A thriving village store and
post office at the heart of the
community? A shop and café
where most customers are on
first name terms with the staff?
A thing of the past, surely.
But at Chale Green Stores the
essentials of the village shop
of the past have been brought
bang into the 21st century.
It represents an explosion of
regeneration, and a pattern for
other villages at risk of losing
their heart, to follow.
“We saw it start to go into the
death spiral that so many village
shops and post offices have
suffered,” says Vernon Tyerman,
who with his wife Jenny Kerry,
an Islander, had settled in Chale
Green after a lifetime of travel.
“It was to be sold and turned
into houses: the people would
have had to travel to Rookley
for their nearest store. So we
bought it.”
Nothing prepares you for the
surprise that is Chale Green
Stores. Beyond the milk,
magazines, hot coffee and
sandwiches you’re in a shop
with stock to rival any high class

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grocer. In the chiller, organic
cheddar sits alongside its more
pedestrian friends and there
is flakey smoked salmon from
the Hebrides. Exotic balsamic
vinegars, preserves and chutneys
tempt from the shelves – you
can even bring your own bottle
and decant fig-infused oil into it.
And somehow, thanks to their
clever shop design, there is no
sense of overcrowding.
“I buy things I’d love in my
kitchen,” says manager Sharon.
“While I’m buying I keep the
deli very much in mind too.”
The café/deli is the other part
of this story of the regeneration
of village life. Pop in for an
excellent coffee or stay for
freshly made soup; or choose
what you fancy from the
deli and Chef Ryan Burr will
arrange it, tapas-style, on a
rustic slab. The menu gives a
nod to things Italian, and Ryan
suggests customers take a look
at Vernon’s hand-picked wine
shelves for an excellent bottle
to accompany his dishes – pay
just £4 corkage and something
which might be off your radar

on most restaurant wine lists are
very affordable. And if at 5pm
when the café closes you’ve
still got wine to drink, it will
cheerfully be re-corked for you
to take home.
Chale Green Stores’ Post Office
is open 9am-1pm Mon-Sat, and

the shop now stays open till
9pm. “We increased the hours
to suit the customers – it is a
convenience store after all,” says
Vernon.
Chale Green Stores, Chale
Green, PO38 2JN. Tel: 551201
www.chalegreenstores.co.uk

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