RESIDENTS of Portbury village had a crash course in coffee making to enable them to deliver first class, fresh coffee, espresso-style at the launch of the village’s first community caf� this weekend.

The caf� will be held in the newly-refurbished skittle alley and lounge area of Portbury Village Hall on the first Saturday of each month from 10am-noon.

Cups of tea and freshly ground coffee will be served and there will be special feature coffees on sale each month. Visitors will also be able to purchase freshly ground coffee to take home.

Mum-of-three Joanne Chilcott said: “Community spirit is very important to people living in Portbury and what started as a light-hearted remark very quickly snowballed in to the idea of running a community caf�.”

On Mother’s Day the 40-year-old said to friends and neighbours that she wished they had arranged for all the mums to meet up for a cup of tea or coffee in the village hall, while their children played together outside and the dads cooked dinner at home.

Then, as part of the royal wedding celebrations in April, resident Chris Ireland, whose family runs a coffee business in Portishead, ran a coffee stall as part of the village party activities.

Joanne and Chris started talking about making the coffee stall a regular event and, from there, the idea of a community caf� was born.

The launch of the caf� this weekend coincides with the Portbury Village Hall open day.

Cakes at the caf� will be a community collaboration with members of Portbury Women’s Institute and volunteers from St Mary’s Church baking and serving the cakes.

A table top sale will be a regular part of the caf� and people are invited to book a stall. These will vary from month to month, but will include arts and crafts, home-made preserves and car boot type tables.

For more details about the community caf�, booking a stall or purchasing coffee call Joanne on 07971 501374 or Andrea on 07970 273062.