A HOBBY that helped a doctor relax after working on the frontline at accident and emergency during the worst of the pandemic, has seen sales soar from what is thought to be the smallest honesty shop in the UK.

Blink and you could miss the vintage horsebox in a layby in the village of Kilve which has become known as the Little Honesty Stall and which is attracting an increasing number of customers from locals and visitors passing by on the A39 main road.

Dr Lou Newbury, of Kilve, first sold eggs at a makeshift stall outside the family home for a few years, to pay for chicken feed for the ex-factory hens they rescued, so the birds could have a good life. With many of them being ‘retired’ and not laying for long, she supplemented sales with jams and a few cakes.

“At the beginning of lockdown, we suddenly started selling out every day,” said Lou.

Her three teenage daughters are makers and bakers of all kinds, and the decision was taken to make a more weather-proof stall, so they could sell more goods.

“We found a vintage wooden horse trailer on Facebook, cut up an old wardrobe for shelves, painted it all, and have not looked back,” she said.

For Lou, who found herself back on the frontline for five months, dealing with the pandemic, “this was a way to get away from all the Covid stuff.

“I would spend afternoons or evenings with my daughters, all baking together, and it has been fabulous.”

Daughter Daisy, 19, proved to have a knack for scones, as well as making earrings and jewellery, raising new chicks and hunting for eggs hidden in the garden. Sophie, 16, is known for her art work, jams and cordials, while Izzy, 15, is an artist and cake maker of all kinds.

“Everything is home-made and ecologically conscious,” said Lou. “If we do rhubarb and ginger cordial, we use our own rhubarb, everyone in the village gives me fruit when it’s in season, and I get apples from East Quantoxhead.

“It’s a proper old fashioned stall and it’s a lovely village where everyone supports each other.”

Now the 60-plus hens are enjoying the results of the varied produce the family makes, from soaps and bath bombs to plants, quiches, jams and cakes.

“We just make whatever comes into our heads. This weekend it’s Breton gateaux and rhubarb and marzipan cake, and sourdough bread is very popular at weekends,” said Lou.

“We price it up, put it on the stall and people put the money in the honesty box.”

Lou’s husband Dan, also a doctor, has been known to sometimes help himself from the stall, and people very occasionally take without paying or make an attempt on the box, she said. “But it is cleared regularly, and most the time they leave it alone, which is lovely.”

When movement at the stall triggered a floodlight one night, Lou found herself going down at one in the morning in her pyjamas to investigate, and the man she found there asked if she could take a credit card.

They ended up becoming friends and Lou now has his charity’s collection tin on the stall.