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Paulene and Barry Patient in the new gallery

EIGHTEEN months after it was ravaged by fire, Great Wishford's old village shop has been reborn as a thriving gallery.

A steady stream of visitors are enjoying its mix of arts and crafts including jewellery, wrought iron sculptures, hand-made glass and turned wood, as well as paintings, hand-spun wool and the odd antique.

There is even talk of opening a tearoom.

For proprietor Paulene Patient, the blaze proved a turning point.

"My husband Barry and I have been here since 1994, running the Post Office and shop and the Old Post House bed and breakfast," she explained.

"We even won Village Shop of the Year in 1995.

"But we had been thinking about changing direction because newcomers to the village tended to use supermarkets more."

Then 18 months ago a huge power surge started a fire directly underneath our bed, while we were sleeping.

Luckily it burned through the burglar alarm wiring, which set the alarm off."

She awoke to smoke pouring through the plughole of the shower and filling the bedroom.

"It was a bit scary," said Paulene.

"But the flames were contained within the Post Office structure. The rest just suffered smoke damage."

Faced with £43,000 worth of repairs the couple, who live with son Sam, 17, Paulene's 87-year-old mother Jean Smith, and their two dogs, decided that it was not worth their while reopening the shop, and they would carry on with just the Post Office and B&B.

Then when the builders started ripping out the shop fixtures and fittings, they uncovered a half timbered plaster wall from the 16th century at one end, and a Chilmark stone wall at the other, and opened up a beautiful big space which was just crying out to be a gallery.

Exhibiting is free, with the gallery taking a percentage of sales.

It is now open from 10am-1.30pm Monday-Friday, and from 11.30am-4pm on Sunday.

8:43am Thursday 7th August 2008

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