A HISTORICAL shop in the heart of the Lake District is up for grabs.

Patterdale Village Store and Post Office is up for sale with a price tag of £520,000, including a three bedroom house with a garden.

Gillian Beggs and Tom Driscoll have been running the business for 15 years, but with Gillian about to turn 70, the couple are ready to retire.

She said: “It’s bitter-sweet, we’ve loved being here. If we were 10 years younger we would continue, but I’m 70 next year. We want the shop to sell as a shop, it’s been here for over 100 years and it’s important to the community and visitors.”

The store was the first one to sell Wainright’s guides and is popular with walkers.

Gillian added: “People doing the Wainrights Coast to Coast path tell us that this is the best stocked shop, in fact one of the few shops left along the Coast to Coast, it’s a very important part of the community.”

The store will be listed for sale with Mere Commercial. The shop’s turnover is around £3,623 per week, with a gross profit of 37.63 per cent.

TV presenter Julia Bradbury visited the store as part of the BBC Four programme Wainwright Walks: Coast to Coast and a notice board outside the shop features a photograph of the TV personality.

Gillian and Tom are looking forward to retirement, having had a taste of it during lockdown.

Gillian said: “During lockdown we were closing the shop at 1pm, so we had a taste of what it would be like. We don’t have big plans, just going off on some adventures and do what people do when they don’t work.”