
Simon and Tracey Perryman had always wanted to run a café, and after owning Askham Stores for nearly seven years they decided to sell the business and look for suitable premises for their new venture.
They instantly fell in love with the old Cottage Café in Penrith which had been closed for two years and was in need of some updating.
The charm and quirkiness of the building on Burrowgate was exactly what they were looking for, and they knew once they put their stamp on it that it would be a great venue for Traymon’s Café.
In September, 2021, Simon and Tracey approached their friend and local artist Stuart Short with an offer of space in their café to exhibit and sell his paintings, sculpture and giftware.
After a couple of initial meetings, they quickly realised its potential to perfectly combine a mix of gallery and café space with a warm, friendly atmosphere.
Between September, 2021, and early February of this year they set about refurbishing the upstairs gallery area and decorating the downstairs seating area, building a counter from reclaimed wood to give the café and gallery space a new contemporary feel which blended well with the low ceilings, oak beams fixtures and fittings.
These included an original Bowerbank & Pugmire range fireplace in the main ground floor seating area with an original salt box built into the wall, inscribed with the date in which the building was built — 1680 — and two fireplaces in the upstairs rooms one of which is gallery and seating area and the other purely gallery space, housing Stuart’s abstract paintings and sculpture and interior décor.
“It was a challenge fitting the contemporary styled walls and floor upstairs as there isn’t a single straight wall or level floor in the building but that gives it its charm and character,” said Simon.
Dogs are very welcome at Traymon’s and this fits well with Stuart’s animal paintings, prints and greetings cards as well as a massive selection of mugs all featuring the dogs, horses and farm livestock that Stuart has painted over the last 20 years as a professional artist.
Stuart said: “Since launching my products in the café I’ve had commissions for paintings of customers’ dogs and sold lots of framed and mounted prints, greetings cards and mugs.”
As well as his animal paintings, Stuart paints large abstract pieces. These are on sale on the first floor along with his sculpture work and giftware.
Stuart lives and works in Lowther and plans to expand the range of his work on sale at Traymon’s.
Simon added: “The menu has firm favourites such as paninis, toasties, sandwiches, cakes, snacks and afternoon teas and we are just in the throes of launching our new menu. We can seat 14 comfortably upstairs and this room can be reserved for breakfast/lunch meetings, family gatherings etc.”