The village’s Nether Lane Country shop on Nethergate is among the final three businesses set to battle it out for the Countryside Alliance’s Best Rural Enterprise award for Yorkshire.

Proprietor Annette Rodgers told the Driffield Times that the shop had been nominated for the award by a village resident.

Asked how she had reacted when she found out the shop had been shortlisted, she said: “I was absolutely thrilled.”

Annette said that Countryside Alliance judges visited the shop last week and spent around an hour there assessing the business for the competition.

The shop, which sells a wide range of handmade or hand-finished furnishings, will be up against the York-based butchers S & A Barker and the Scarborough & District NVQ Child Care Centre in Scarborough for the award.

Annette, who runs the business with her husband Paul, said: “There’s nothing really like us.

“That’s the nice thing about it. It’s individual and it’s unique round here.”

The shop, which first opened to customers in August last year, endured a difficult period earlier in the year, but Annette said trade had recovered in recent months.

She said: “Trade’s been fine. The summer was awful, but since then it’s been lovely.

“We have hopefully put ourselves in a strong position for next year and we have got a couple of small plans for next year.”

She added: “It’s never going to be big and factory like. It’s a small, individual shop.”

The regional award winners will be announced in the New Year and will go forward to the national awards which are to be presented in a ceremony at the House of Lords next March.