May 10, 2008

Town and country gifts at the galleryBy Cathy OwenicWales.icNetwork.co.uk

Combining town and country can be quite difficult but the Gregson family seem to have cracked it.

Driving past this shop on a busy Cardiff street, it is hard to imagine it is there as a result of farm diversification.

It is now a gallery and framing shop on the bustling Whitchurch Road that sells modern and more traditional prints and original pictures, as well as jewellery and pottery.

But it started out very differently.

In fact, it began life in one of the barns on David and Penny Gregson’s family farm, in Cefn Mably. The family were farming pigs and sheep, but when the agriculture industry hit hard times, they decided to convert one of their barns into an art gallery and framing workshop 19 years ago.

And a combination of their son, Peter, coming into the business, and highways objections to the gallery on the farm, they bought their current shop, on Whitchurch Road, Heath.

“My mother was a keen amateur painter, which started my father off on a framing career, but since having the shop mum has not had the time to paint,” says Peter, 37, whose wife Becky has helped out too.

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