Village post office and stores offers the cup that cheers . . .

BRIDESTOWE sub postmaster Alex Heron has diversified in an effort to keep his business viable by converting his dining room into a tearoom.

Mr Heron, who runs the post office and stores, said all rural post offices were under threat by Government proposals to switch benefit payments to banks — adding a new aspect to his business was a way of sustaining the facility.

'Nobody really knows what is going to happen,' he said. 'By opening the tearoom we are not keeping all our eggs in one basket.'

With the premises being on walking and cycling routes Mr Heron hopes to attract tourists and locals out for a stroll to his 'Riverside Tea Rooms'.

'People are often coming in and asking where they can get a cup of tea and that is where the idea came from,' he said.

'We have restored the old dining room to the way it once was including taking off the concrete to reveal a lovely slate floor.'

The new venture opened to the public on Monday.

A day earlier, many village residents responded to Mr Heron's invitation to come and see the new tearooms.