WHEN Laura Burrell used to take her young sons to her local farm shop to buy her groceries, she never dreamed that one day she would be running the place with her family.

The part-time teacher and her husband Jonny, along with her parents, Anne and Robin Norris, bought Hockey’s Farm Shop near Fordingbridge last year.

Their mission is to restore the place to its former glory.

“It was in a very dilapidated state when we bought it,” Laura explains.

“After the stress of everyone selling their homes we finally moved in last November and had about three weeks of dry weather before the floods started”.”

Despite such an inauspicious start, the family hasn’t wasted any time on their new venture.

The farm shop has been extensively revamped and extended, there are plans in the pipeline for a cafeteria and they now have 12 rare breed British Lop piglets so they can produce their own pork.

“We are getting there,” says Laura.

“The shop is almost finished. The local village shop closed a few years ago so we wanted to provide locals with good quality food and a destination.

“My husband has spent years working in the food trade so the plan is to bring fresh bread, milk, fruit, vegetables and newspapers, along with other must-have items to the shop.”

The ten-acre small holding is also home to Laura’s sister and her nephew as well as some orphaned pet lambs and a seven-week old New Forest foal called Nemo.

“My main concern is for the welfare of the animals which is why I started buying meat from here originally,” Laura explains.

The farm shop was started in 1973 by Philip and Carol Hockey who focused on naturally-reared meat.

In its heyday there were half a dozen butchers working on site and there was a large herd of Charolais cattle and red deer.

Laura adds: “There is something special about this place – it is so lovely and tranquil. I always used to love coming here but I would never have thought in a million years that one day it would be our home.”