RESIDENTS of a Cotswold village have thrown themselves behind a campaign to reopen their village shop.

Now they need to raise £3,500 by January 15 to be able to open up the doors of the shop in Temple Guiting by the end of January.

Villagers heard the latest plans for the shop at a public meeting in the village hall last week. Mr Harry Lee-Warner, chairman of the Friends of Temple Guiting management committee, said: "We need to raise £3,500. We have already raised £2,200, but we need the financial support of the village to be able to open."

The Friends are now writing to every household in the village asking people to become members of a provident society with a minimal £10 subscription fee. Membership would entitle them to a say in the running of the shop, which is owned by Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

The Friends have already recruited a new postmistress and shop manager ready to take over if the money can be found, although Mr Lee-Warner said he was confident that the funds would come in.

Over recent years the shop and post office were run by a series of tenants, but the business closed earlier this year when it stopped making a profit.

Villagers were so upset by the loss of the shop, a focal point for village life, that they have rallied round in numbers to support the Friends' efforts. Lifelong resident Cath Ellis is set to take over as postmistress, subject to approval from Post Office Counters Ltd, and Monica Lancaster will take over the residential accommodation and manage the shop part-time with volunteer help.

Already 26 people, including actor and author Robert Llewellyn, have come forward to offer their services.

The post office has also been refurbished to allow new computer equipment to be installed and Tesco in Stow has agreed to put together a training package for the part-time and volunteer staff.