Chilbolton Village Shop and Tearoom has £21,700 of grants for a reconfigured shop and a second kitchen. The fund behind it still holds £100,000 for 2026/27.

Chilbolton Village Shop and Tearoom has taken £21,700 in grant funding from Test Valley Borough Council and spent it on rebuilding the way the shop works: £13,400 from the Rural England Prosperity Fund and £8,300 from the Rural Enterprise Grant. (Test Valley Borough Council, 10 August 2026)

The useful part of this, for anyone running a business in a Test Valley village, is that the fund it came from is not closed. There is £100,000 available for 2026/27, in grants of £1,000 to £10,000, and the council’s scheme page sets no closing date. The binding constraint is the match: you have to find 20% of the cost yourself.

What the money bought

Inside the shop, the layout has been reconfigured to bring the freshly prepared food service together with an upgraded coffee machine and a display fridge, which frees up space for food to go. The post office counter has been moved to the rear of the shop, which the council says gives customers more privacy when using it.

The larger change is off the premises. Owner Nicky Bond has set up a second, offsite kitchen at Stonefield Park, on the outskirts of Chilbolton, to raise production of food to go and ready meals and to support catering for private and corporate customers. The grants paid towards a gas oven, freezer, chiller and dishwasher there.

Nicky and her husband Andy recently marked 10 years at the shop. She said: “I am so grateful for the grants. If they had not been available, we would never have been able to make this investment. We’d been making-do for years, but I’ve now been able to realise my vision for the shop.”

Cllr David Drew said the shop “is much more than a shop. It is a valued community asset that local people rely on and enjoy.”

The business is registered with the council’s food safety team as Chilbolton Village Shop And Tea Room With Nicky’s Kitchen, at Chilbolton Stores and Post Office on Village Street, SO20 6BE. It holds a food hygiene rating of 5, very good, from its most recent inspection on 9 June 2026 (Food Standards Agency).

Where the £21,700 came from

Breakdown of the £21,700 awarded to Chilbolton Village Shop and Tearoom, and the grant limits on the Rural Business and Community Enterprise Fund

The Rural England Prosperity Fund is the rural strand of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and pays capital costs for rural businesses and rural communities. Test Valley received over £150,000 for 2025-26 under it, split between businesses and community organisations across the borough’s rural areas.

What it means for you

If you run a business, club or community organisation in rural Test Valley, the council’s Rural Business and Community Enterprise Fund is the route that is open now. The terms, from the council’s own scheme page, are specific:

  • Grants of £1,000 to £10,000.
  • The fund covers up to 80% of your project cost. You must find at least 20% yourself.
  • £100,000 is available for 2025/26 and £100,000 for 2026/27.
  • It pays for capital projects and one-off revenue costs such as training. It will not pay ongoing running costs, including staff wages.

Your project has to be in a rural area as defined by the Test Valley Corporate Plan, and you must be constituted or trading when you apply, hold the trading licences relevant to your business (a hospitality business has to be registered as a food business with the council), have a UK business bank account and hold valid insurance. The council will not fund applicants in arrears on business rates with it, applicants subject to an enforcement order for a planning breach, domestic property improvements or private vehicles.

The examples the council gives of what it will fund are broader than most people assume: a village pub or shop refurbishing or buying equipment, a community organisation starting a commercial venture such as a business hub, pantry or childcare facility, a rural social club, a commercial rural sports club, a farm diversifying, or a traditional rural trade such as forestry, farriery or thatching investing in kit or training.

Before applying, the council asks you to contact your Community Engagement Officer so it can run initial eligibility checks. Applications go in on the online form and are emailed to pfunds@testvalley.gov.uk, with a recent bank statement dated within two months, your most recent accounts or self-assessment return, detailed quotes for the spend, proof of insurance for any contractor without an electronic footprint, and proof of ownership or lease if the work is to a building. Full terms are on the council’s fund page.

Chilbolton is one of the smaller places we cover, and its trading businesses are listed on our Chilbolton directory page alongside the rest of things to do around Andover.