Wednesday, 21st August, 2002 13:00 BST
Forest folk - Rosie Tugwell | |
|  | | Rosie Tugwell |
| | Take a closer look at the people who live and work in the New Forest. Rosie runs a local shop, Peter is a vicar, Brian's an agister and Tony is a village copper. Here they tell us how they feel about the area and describe their daily lives. |
| | | Rosie Tugwell and her husband, Ray, own and run the shop and Post Office at Minstead.
"We've been here five years now and we absolutely love it. We're not far from the main road, yet it's like an oasis. It's such a beautiful silvern area, so natural and unspoilt.
I was actually brought up in Norfolk and I've always been used to the countryside. My husband, Ray, was in the army so we've been used to moving around and we just felt that we wanted a break, a bit of life in an English village.
Ray does the business side and the Post Office. I do most of the rest, but it's all shared.
We enjoy working together.
 | | Rosie runs the shop |
One of our strengths is that we get lots of things from small companies which the supermarkets don't stock. Things for dinner parties, things that are home made, something a little different. We find that they are our main success.
We're very proud of our cheese counter. Being a pretty small shop people don't expect to see such a good selection. It's just grown and grown.
It's definitely one of the things that bring people to the shop. We try to do all the lovely English and Welsh cheeses but we do stock some of the French ones.
We do lovely Riversdale, from the Yorkshire Dales, right across the board really, plus wild boar pate, which people get quite excited about.
 | | Rosie and her cheeses |
We have a little giggle from time to time when somebody who normally only comes in for a stamp suddenly asks for something outrageous. Sometimes I think they're having us on. Somebody said "I bet you don't do pickled walnuts", and we did! We were quite chuffed with ourselves.
People who move in, I introduce to other people around - the shop is a general hub. Lots of laughter goes on in here, we share everybody's ups and downs.
There's never a dull minute. Ray and I join in with various things, I do a bit of singing in the local choir and Ray is involved in amateur dramatics. We both enjoy music and we play bridge - giggly bridge that is!
I love the forest. I'd like to see people driving slower, they go roaring through and don't anticipate that round the next corner there might be a mare and foal, but I just love it. It's the most wonderful place to live and I just like being part of it."
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