Three seems to be the magic number for a new Penrith shop which combines a trio of businesses.
Number 3 Corn Market opened in October and is made up of Black Hand Wine, Katie Mawson Art and Withnail Books, who together moved from Brunswick Yard in the town, having been based there for several years.
Sam Jary, owner of Blackhand Wine, said: “We’ve always worked together. Brunswick Yard was a wonderful place and it was a real community.
” Adam Ferguson, who owns the yard, is trying to sell up and he’s closing, so we thought we would try and keep the yard’s spirit alive and move in together.”
The group had the task of finding a space big enough to house their businesses but small enough so they don’t have to pay business rates, which is when they found 3 Corn Market.
Sam, who lives in Cockermouth, is a trained oenologist and viticulturist — a winemaker and grapegrower.
He lived and worked in New Zealand and France for numerous years, then married a Cumbrian, had three daughters and moved back to the area as a wine merchant.
He grows his own wine with a friend at a vineyard in Burgundy, France.
“We do it the old fashioned way,” he said. “We pick by hand, we stomp by feet and it’s delicious and I’m lucky to be able to get it.” Sam sells his wine in the shop, and likes to particularly focus on organic and biodynamic wines.
Trained textile designer Katie Mawson, of Penrith, was keen to be part of the shop as she feels the three businesses complement each other well. The lovely thing is there’s an ethos between the three of us that’s really nice.
“The fact that Adam does secondhand books, Sam’s so knowledgeable about wine and it’s all organic and all my things use natural fibres or are recycled,” she said.
Katie sells her hand knitted 100 per cent lambswool accessories as well as artwork made from the cloth of discarded hardback books. She sources damaged books, which would otherwise be thrown away, from Penrith charity shops and uses them to create collages.
Adam Newell began trading under Withnail Books in 2013 after moving to Cumbria to start up his secondhand bookshop.
He worked in publishing in London for 20 years and met Adam Ferguson while trekking at Mount Everest. Adam offered him a space at Brunswick Yard to start his “dream” of opening a second hand bookshop.
“It seems to work really well so far (in the new shop). The footfall is pretty constant, we’ve got a good spot there.
“It’s nice because our regulars know where we are but we’re also getting people who are finding us for the first time,” said former book editor Adam.
There are around 5,000 books in Adam’s shop and he said due to the restricted space, everything has a reason to be there. He sells books for people and is always on the lookout for more stock, as long as it’s interesting.
