Yatton Station - Strawberry Line cafe project

[whole diary]

[clevedonian]

yes it is - can't wait for it to open to get a nice warm cup of coffee!!

[Mookiemoo]

Might use yatton over nailsea if the coffee shop has decent hours

[Mookiemoo]

Nailsea is free parking but......

[Lee]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

New cafe opens at Yatton railway station

A new cafe costing ^250,000 has opened in the waiting room of Yatton railway station in North Somerset.

The Strawberry Line Cafe was set up with the help of the Brandon Trust and will give people with learning disabilities work experience.

One of the directors, Irene Stubbs, said the community "needed the cafe" and it would be a "great asset".

She added the idea for the facility, at the Brunel-designed station, had been in the making for about four years.

The Brandon Trust is a Bristol-based charity that works with people who have behavioural and learning problems.

[Chris from Nailsea]

While the Strawberry Line Cafe has been open to the public for a month now, today was the 'official' opening event.  I attended, by kind invitation, and enjoyed a really fascinating hour at Yatton Station (not something you'd normally expect to do, perhaps!)

I had the very great pleasure of meeting Colin Forse (mentioned above), and listening to some of his memories of the old Strawberry Line.  He told me that he'd seen lots of previous books about the engines - all about engines - but he'd wanted to write about the carriages, and wagons, and people!

The official opening, involving the traditional snipping of a ribbon, was done by the Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox (the local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament)), who quipped that "this is one cut I'm very happy to make!"

I was very impressed with the whole setup at Yatton: the cafe has already proved successful with the local commuters, and it shows every prospect of building up an ever-increasing customer base.

The opening hours of the cafe are 6:45am to 2:30pm Monday to Friday and 11:00am to 3:00pm on Saturdays.  Prices are modest - ^2.25 for a bacon sandwich, ^1.95 for a cappuccino, from their 'takeaway menu', for example.

Their website is www.strawberrylinecafe.co.uk and you can phone through your order for collection on 01934 835758.

If anyone finds themselves at Yatton Station with just a few minutes to spare, please do visit the cafe - I think they deserve every success, and I wish them well for the future.

Chris. 

[devon_metro]

Might pop in when I return home for a couple of days in just over a week, assuming it is open at the times I travel!

[Chris from Nailsea]

From westonsupermarepeople:

Railway cafe that's a first-class place for a bite to eat

Strawberry Line Cafe

I had precisely 41 minutes to enjoy my lunch at the Strawberry Line Cafe on the platform at Yatton railway station.

Actually, that's one minute more than I expected because the 12.23 was running late and that gave me an extra 60 seconds to walk across the footbridge from the cafe to the platform where the next train would take me back to Bristol Temple Meads.

Designed by Brunel, Yatton railway station was opened in 1841.

These days, Yatton station is simply another stop between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare, but it used to be a lot more than that.

Until the early Sixties, the branch line from Yatton transported the world-famous strawberries from Cheddar and Axbridge, hence its quaint nickname of the Strawberry Line.

Yatton station is an architectural gem. Just over a year ago, a group of locals got together to breathe new life into the station and re-open the cafe on the platform. This not-for-profit community cafe now provides opportunities for adults with learning disabilities.

A two-room cafe with an open kitchen behind the counter, there are pale pink clapboard walls, squishy purple sofas and art deco sidelights. There's a bookcase of well-thumbed books for those who want something to read between journeys and a wood burner belting out the heat.

The extensive menu offers sandwiches, paninis, cooked breakfasts and a full specials menu. All dishes are available to eat in or take away.

Specials on the day I visited included butternut squash soup with sourdough (^3.45) and Parma ham salad with sourdough (^4.95).

Also from the chalkboard was my Stilton, leek and potato tart (^4.95) which arrived as a generous slice, piping hot and boasting plenty of tangy cheese. It was served with decent-sized portions of three salads ^ well-dressed cherry tomatoes, a scoop of potato salad and a creamy coleslaw. Everything at the Strawberry Line Cafe is cooked to order on the premises ^ unusual for a railway cafe these days ^ and there is a policy of using as many local suppliers as possible.

There wasn't time to order the homemade bread and butter pudding from the specials board, so I bought a slice of rich and fudgy chocolate and cherry brownie (^1.25) to take away.

This is one railway cafe well worth breaking the journey for.

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

My memories of the Strawberry Line relate to the short journey west from Yatton to Clevedon. There used to be a single open carriage hauled by a small tank engine (of what class I do not recall or was not interested in that while ago). The single open carriage is my key memory as it had a large central chandelier with a large array of gas fed mantle lights. I don't recall them being lit as I only used the train for day time trips to the beach at Clevedon. This would have been during the 1950s. Is there anyone ancient enough to recall this train? I have looked on the internet but have not been able to trace any reference to it.

[JayMac]

The news item from westonsupermarepoeple is an extract from a larger food review article published in the Bristol Evening Post and Western Daily Press.

The Strawberry Line Cafe website has a copy of the full item:

http://www.strawberrylinecafe.co.uk/2012/02/bristol-evening-post-16th-feb-2012/

[JayMac]

The Stawberry Line Cafe celebrates its 5th Birthday today, 10th December 2015.

Posted on their Facebook page:

It's the Strawberry Line Cafe's 5th Birthday today! Years before the 10th December 2010, small group of dedicated people started to work on a vision- restoring an unused building to create new opportunities for young adults with learning disabilities. The Cafe has weathered 5 years of recession, social change and the challenges of caring for a preserved building in all weathers. Thankyou for your support, please continue to use us and support us. And pop in today for complimentary birthday cake with your coffee (til it runs out😊)

I've used this cafe on a couple of occasions. Very nice it is too. Happy birthday!