A NEW welcoming community hub has opened in Calstock as temperatures drop.

The new Pop Up Cafe and Community Hub can be found on Commercial Street.

The official ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Monday morning and was followed by a spectacular ‘soft launch’ on the Saturday, attended by locals.

It’s a dream come true for its founders, cake baker extraordinaire Ruth Kelly-Williams and her fiance Andrew Cuer.

The couple moved back to Gunnislake in February after many years living in Plymouth, returning to the village where Ruth was born.

Ruth set up a stall selling her homemade cakes in May and is has ‘snowballed’.

She has now been able to retire from her day job as a healthcare assistant at a trauma ward at Derriford Hospital.

Together the couple are setting up the community hub to give people a warm base as winter starts to bite.

Both of them bake, with Ruth concentrating on classic cakes and Andrew, who used to work in the dockyard, honing his skills as a tray baker.

Ruth said: “It has been a lifelong dream for me to open a cafe. I did a degree in hospitality and events management when I was 45 and I ran an RAF mess. I have a love of baking and the hospitality side of it.”

The cafe had an official opening on Monday morning, when Cornwall councillor for Calstock Angus Black (Reform UK) cut the ribbon. Also in honour of the occasion, Calstock parish crier Hilary Fairhurst read out a special ‘cry’ honouring Ruth’s ‘scrumptious’ cakes.

Afterwards everyone enjoyed refreshments in the cafe, which has been painted the red and yellow colours of the Cornish tartan by Ruth and Andrew.

Flowers were specially arranged by Gunnislake ward parish councillor Chris Clarke, and her husband, also Chris Clarke, hand-painted the sign outside.