Great Ryburgh village fights back

When many small rural villages are struggling to survive, one north Norfolk hamlet is doing the exact opposite.

Villagers have raised £100,000 in under six months to open a new shop and that’s just the tip of the ice-berg. Elaine Maslin takes a look.

It was a village that had lost its school and the pub was struggling.

The last blow, a double whammy, came in summer when the sub-postmaster suddenly left and notice was given on the lease of the shop the post office had sat in.

Then the pub shut.

But Great Ryburgh, near Fakenham, now looks like a village not to be reckoned with.