A TINY farm shop has won a prestigious gold Taste of the West award.

Bride Valley Farm Shop is on the tight bend in Abbotsbury, it sells all sorts of local produce including pork and lamb from local farms, but it’s the Longhorn beef from the shop’s farm in the nearby Valley of the Stones, that they are most proud of.

The shop recently scooped the Gold award at the Taste of the west Awards, which aims to shine a spotlight of the top products, producers and shops in the South West.

They received the award for the shop and judges came in secret to check out the store and its service.

At the checkout the judges presented staff with vouchers for the produce and so they knew they had received a visit. They a few days ago they received the notification of their win by post. The team said that one of the nicest comments from the judges said: "The service was excellent. Both members of staff warmly welcomed the judges as they entered the shop and they were both aware of the provenance of all the articles asked about."

Patricia Barker owns the shop and the farm in Littlebredy with her husband John. She said the team were delighted to have received the award, adding: “We feel pleased of course. It’s nice to be recognised.”

And the shop has also been nominated for a Countryside Alliance Award for local food.

The team went to London last week for the awards ceremony. Ten businesses from across England battled it out for the title. Although the shop didn't win, the staff said they had a wonderful day.

The shop was nominated for the award by its customers and Patricia said it was “lovely” to receive the recognition from the local community.

As part of the awards the shop had to give information about how much of what they sell is locally sourced and what their relationship was with the community.

Staff from the shop pick up prescriptions and bring them to the shop, so that local residents who don’t drive can drop in and pick them up. They also drop the items back to people’s homes if they are passing.

Mrs Barker said: “It’s good for us and its good for the local people. We also do a delivery service and its free so if people can’t get out and if we are passing by we will drop it in.”

She admitted to finding the London awards “slightly scary,” adding: “You don’t know what to expect. I think there will be a lot of people there.”