A village shop which has existed on the same site for at least 100 years has been forced to close after the loss of its post office.

The Dairy Stores at Harvington has now closed after its post office counter was axed in the recent round of closures announced earlier this month.

Mike Gibbs who ran the the post office said there was no future in the business. It marks the end of an era as there has been a village shop on the site at Park Lane for at last 100 years.

He said: “We took over the business eight years ago. However, we have not had the support of either local people or visitors to nearby Harvington Hall.

“We decided the village shop wasn’t viable about three years ago and changed it into a gallery. However, that didn’t take off either.”

He added: “We used to sell sweets and ice creams but people going to Harvington Hall didn’t come in.”

The shop was known as The Dairy Stores as it had a big cold store where bottles of milk were stored ready for the daily round.