Feniscowles Village Store announced their closure on September 30 due to the owner’s health; however, a local business has announced they will be taking over and keeping the post office open.

Owners of furniture shop Mad Chair Company, Tracy Reed, 52, and her 27-year-old daughter Remy-Mae, announced they will continue running the post office as well as adding a coffee, gift, and furniture shop.

The owner of the former village store and post office, Peter Hollings, sadly shared the news that, due to his health, he would not longer be able to run the well-loved community shop last month, but the post office would remain open for the time being.

Luckily, he has kindly decided to train up the mum and daughter so the post office can stay open for service for the busy Christmas period.

Lancashire Telegraph: Mad Chair CompanyMad Chair Company (Image: Tracy Reed)

Feniscowles Village Store announced its closure in September and received an overwhelmingly supportive and sad response from residents and councillors, proving how important local businesses are to the area.

Tracy shared how important it is for her to continue offering a vital service that locals rely on as well as growing her own business.

She said: “It was about three weeks ago when I decided to take over. I own the furniture business but I’ve never done anything like this before, but the community needs it so we’re going to keep the post office open.

“It usually takes about six months to get trained up but due to the circumstances, Peter said he’s going to train us up before Christmas so we should hopefully be ready by then.”

In addition to providing a vital community service, the new premise allows the business to hold more stock and continue supporting small, independent businesses.

Tracy added: “We’re going to be doing furniture, gifts, luxury foods and we always try to source from smaller businesses, locally when we can but we alo use some higher end brands from Italy and across the country.

“It’s also doing something for Blackburn itself. It’s something different because normally, if you wanted something unique or quirky, you’d have to go to somewhere like Manchester, but now people have got somewhere local.”

The ambitious business owners will be opening a coffee and cake bar with free WiFi so locals can come and work from the shop with a coffee or just come for a chat.

“Because we’re not busy enough,” Tracy said jokingly. “We’ll be opening the coffee bar, whilst running a post office, gift shop and furniture store.”

“But it’s great because either me or my daughter will always be in so if anyone’s ever lonely or an elderly person just wants to pop in for a chat, we’ll always be here for that.”

The Mad Chair Company will still be open at their current location on 714a Preston Old Road, Feniscowles for the meantime.