MANAGERS of a village shop which lost its post office as part of cutbacks, then suffered an armed robbery, are celebrating after being named one of Oxfordshire’s best village shops.

Stanton St John Village Stores took third place in the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council awards, in the Best Independent Shop category, behind Taste Buds in Adderbury, and The Postbox in Lower Wolvercote.

Dennis Ingrey, 59, and wife Mollie, 65, took over management of the shop just two years ago.

They soon found themselves fighting a lengthy but ultimately unsuccessful battle to save the postal services they offered.

Then on January 15 last year, two men, armed with a gun and knife, robbed the shop.

They demanded the couple open the post office counter but when they realised it was closed down, they grabbed cash and cigarettes and fled.

Two men were arrested the following week, but no-one has ever been charged in connection with the attack.

Mr Ingrey said that the award recognised the support the shop had received from villagers and was proof of the need for independently-owned stores.

He said: “We’ve only been here for two years, so to get third place is pretty surprising.

“The past few years haven’t been easy and it has been an uphill struggle but people in the village have been very supportive.

“It’s extremely important village shops like ours stay open because there aren’t many buses here and a lot of old people wouldn’t be able to get to a shop otherwise.

“It has become a really good community shop and become a meeting place for village people. A village shop is the hub of the community.”

Former Henley MP Boris Johnson backed the fight by dozens of residents to save the shop’s post office counter in 2008 but could not prevent the Government swinging the axe as part of a multi-million-pound national cost-cutting drive, which affected a number of other county shops.

Mr Ingrey has converted the counter area into a delicatessen but the shop continues to sell stamps.