The last shop in the village of Capel Dewi went many years ago and since then the inhabitants have had to travel for their daily supplies. During 2012 Dolen Dewi, the local community association, decided that they wanted to do something about this and took the initiative to re-open a shop but this time as a community run shop. The main aim was to develop a small “convenience store” for the village, run by the village.

Dolen Dewi has been supported in this project by the Plunkett Foundation which is an organisation that supports the development of such shops all over the UK and who have so far helped 300 of these projects to get going. Their help was greatly appreciated in assisting Dolen Dewi to win a grant from the Big Lottery Village SOS fund, which allowed the employment of two part-time project co-ordinators to get Siop Gymunedol Capel Dewi Community Shop up and running.

SIOP DEWI opened on 2nd April 2013 and goes from strength to strength, increasing the choice of stock and services offered all the time.