WILF Garbutt knows more than most about running a village shop. His family have been in the business since 1856 when Wardill Bros sarted trading at Thornton-le-Dale.

He started work there as a 15-year-old 60 years ago - and his son, John, and daughter, Helen, have followed him into the business.

Wardill Bros, which Wilf describes as a "general store", sells everything from newspapers and confectionery to hardware, such as tools for the garden.

The shop is, Wilf admits, "holding its own" - and Thornton itself is luckier than many other villages as it has a good range of services. There's a separate village post office, a chemist, a butcher and a supermarket as well as the general store.

But even so, the parish council chairman and Ryedale councillor admits, he does worry about what is happening to village shops and post offices elsewhere.

"I am concerned," he says. "I think that most villages are getting to the stage where, in this age of the car and the supermarket, the village shop just isn't viable any more."

A good example, he says, is neighbouring Allerston. "They no longer have a shop. That's completely finished." Wardill Bros have taken over Allerston's newspaper deliveries.

For those without their own transport, living in a village without a shop or post office of its own can be difficult. Many, Wilf says, are left relying on the goodwill of their neighbours in order to get day-to-day necessities.

He's determined the same won't happen in Thornton, and that the family business will remain a thriving concern. "I hope we can keep going a bit longer," he says, with deliberate understatement. "But you never know how circumstances can change. If things do change as much in the next 20 years as they have in the last 20 years, who knows?"

Updated: 11:29 Friday, September 20, 2002