PLANS to reopen a café at the heart of a Ryedale village are underway with hopes of getting the whole community involved.

The new owner of Terrington Village Stores, Deborah Woollin and a team of five other women are painting and restoring the café and the Back o’ The Shop gallery ready for its reopening, which they hope will be some time next month.

Deborah, who used to run Country Green, in Malton, said the café will feature home-made goods, as well as speciality dishes made by staff members.

“We are going to do all our own cakes and pies and have our own recipes and signature dishes, one of which will be cheesecake,” she said.

“We would love to collect recipes in the shop from local residents and make their recipe and feature it as a special guest item.”

Since she took over the busy shop from Ian and Kate Hughes – who sold the business after running it for 21 years – Deborah said she has been overwhelmed with all of the support she has received from locals in the area so far.

She said: “It has been so busy in the shop because all of the locals have come to see us as well as people from the surrounding villages coming in to wish us well. Which has been lovely.“The support we have had has been really touching.

“The shop has always been the heart of the village and we certainly aim to keep it that way.”

Deborah and her colleagues are also hoping to hold special events every month.

Plans include a Hallowe’en spectacular and other events to coincide with specific weeks in the food calendar, such as Vegan week.

She said: “This is the most fantastically busy little shop.

“We hope to get all of the community involved as well.”