TWENTY years on and the tills are still jingling!

A community shop has carried on, despite the closure of fellow local stores, to celebrate two decades of successful trading this week.

When the village shop, serving the adjoining villages of East and West Hanney, first opened in 1987, the huge Tesco superstore at Abingdon had already started to take its toll on small traders.

The disaster of losing their village shop the previous year was the catalyst which spurred on local people.

The villagers banded together, with financial help from the Vale of White Horse District Council, to make it the fourth co-operative trading venture in the district.

When they opened their doors, next to the Royal British Legion's War Memorial Hall in West Hanney, the organisers exploited the many forms of produce on their doorstep, and a keen pricing policy meant that bags of sugar were tagged at only 1p more than Tesco.

Inflation may have taken its toll over the years, but the Hanney community shop still maintains that it offers local people a range of products at competitive prices.

Two decades later, Audrey Vickars, the chairman of the shop committee, said its fair pricing still manages to keep them afloat and in business, thanks to loyal support from the local community.

She said: "Greetings cards, free range eggs, local honey, organic lamb and other meat supplied by the local Dew Farm Meadow are all very popular."

The one cloud on the horizon, however, is the future of the shop's sub-post office, which is under threat of possible closure, along with thousands of others across the country, Mrs Vickers said: "Our MP, Ed Vaizey, is supporting us, but we have yet to hear what the result will be."