What is the project?

The Strawberry Line Cafe Project has been set up to establish a community cafe in the old waiting room building at Yatton Railway Station. Through our association with the Brandon Trust, which initiated the project, the community cafe is also intended to provide a working environment to give training and employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities, with the object of enabling their economic activity and independence.

Here’s a short presentation which gives you an idea of where we are, and see more details below.

When is work going to start?

The builders, Honeyfield, are already on site. They are experienced in working on railway stations and are going to restore the heritage features of Brunel’s listed building.  Stand back to be amazed by the transformation!

When will the cafe open?

We haven’t set a date yet because the builders don’t know what they might find behind the wood panelling yet…  but we will be open in the autumn.

What will the opening hours be?

To start with we will open Monday to Friday at 7am and close at 2pm. Our planning permission does not allow us to open after 5pm.

What about weekends?

We plan to be open at the weekends as well in due course, but the opening hours will be different, and will depend on the time of year.  We will also need some volunteer help to allow us to open at the weekends.

What sort of food will you be serving?

Wherever possible it will be ethically sourced, locally supplied, fair trade, and always tasty! There will be some healthy options and some traditional tasty cafe food. For breakfasts, there will be orange juice, bananas, and yogurts for example,  or bacon baps, buttered wholemeal toast and veggie sausage rolls.  Lunches will include home made soup, salads, and jacket potatoes. We’ll serve good coffee, speciality and traditional teas, milkshakes, local real dairy ice cream and home made cakes.  In season there wil be lots of strawberry specials…

Who runs the project?

The project is run by a Community Interest Company (CIC), a non-profit organisation with a board of a board of directors including local residents and a representative of the Brandon Trust. The CIC gives us some advantages compared with a charity, particularly when it comes to running the cafe itself, but, like a charity, is run solely for the benefit of the project itself, with 100% of the profits ploughed back into the business. We are delighted to have as our patron Dr Liam Fox MP, who is a keen supporter of the project.

Where will the cafe be?

The cafe will open in the old waiting room, office and store rooms at Yatton Railway Station, designed by the renowned Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Although part of the building was used as a waiting room until quite recently, most of it has been empty for years, as you can see on our photos page. The building is listed, and so the process of developing plans which preserve and restore Brunel’s original building has been a long and complex one. However with the support of Network Rail, First Great Western and North Somerset Council, we are now close to finalising these plans, and actively looking for the funding to put them into operation.

Who will use the cafe?

One obvious group of users will be railway passengers, looking for refreshments to help them on their way, or while waiting for a train. We’ll also be hoping that the many walkers and cyclists using the Strawberry Line will find the cafe convenenient for a stop at the beginning or end of their journey.

However the cafe will also be a community facility, where anyone can drop in to enjoy the atmosphere and the food and drink that we’ll have on offer. The cafe will be available to community groups or event organisers, either during normal opening hours or for private functions, providing a comfortable and relaxed meeting place in a unique location.

How will the training work?

As well as having paid staff, the cafe will provide training for young people with learning disabilities under the supervision of the Brandon Trust, a Bristol-based organisation with experience of this kind of project in other locations. By doing this, we can give young people the opportunity to gain experience and qualifications which is often hard to get elsewhere, and work with the Trust to develop the skills which their students need.

How can I get involved?

See our Support page for more details, but in the meantime spread the word, pass on details of the website and Facebook page to family and friends, and support the cafe with your custom once the cafe is open!

FAQs