OWNERS of a luxury patisserie run by a professional chef and his family are Crowdfunding to bring an historic Oswestry town centre building back to life.

Adam Cleal, a semi-finalist in the 2019 series of Channel 4’s ‘Bake Off: The Professionals’, his mother Samantha Cleal and Mike Clarke-Booth are looking to move their popular venture Niche Patisserie into the 400-year-old Black Gate building, in Salop Road.

Niche Patisserie was started by the family in May 2020 on the outskirts of the town, and has since operated a delivery and collection service during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Seeking funding support to allow a move into the town centre, the business is looking to launch a luxury patisserie and bakery with an afternoon tea experience on offer.

Samantha explained: “We’re Crowdfunding because it is such a huge project.

“We are in talks with local councils with regards to some local funding but that is yet to be confirmed.

“The Crowdfunding is also on a reward basis – so depending on what people put in, there are rewards in relation to that available.”

The man behind the pastries will be Adam – a Michelin Star-trained chef who finished as a semi-finalist on the popular Channel 4 show, as well as second in the UK & Ireland Junior Chocolate Masters Competition.

Niche currently offers luxury croissants, breads and patisseries, serving more than 1,200 residential customers and 15 commercial customers.

Samantha hopes the patisserie will be ready to open at The Black Gate by late July or the beginning of August, and wants to focus on providing an experience for customers equivalent to that of places such as Claridges in London.

She said: “All of our products are what you would expect from a five-star hotel. That’s where Adam has worked and that is his level of expertise.

“We’re well-known now in Oswestry as the home of incredible croissants – it is where Niche was born.

“We are looking to move into Black Gate. We have had the planning permission and have now started work.

“The aim is to put Niche on the map and we are promoting it as Niche at the Black Gate.

“We are aiming to provide a luxury bakery side and shop, and we will be serving specialist coffee and teas.

“That will be one side of the building, and the second side will be an afternoon tea lounge experience.

“We are also looking to have an experience called The Pass, which will allow up to four people to have a one-to-one with Adam about how their afternoon tea is created.”

Samantha highlighted the importance of maintaining the heritage of the historic building, and hopes to put it back on the map.

“We feel very strongly about the heritage of the building,” she said.

“This is why we want to incorporate the name of the building into the name of the patisserie.

“We are working alongside local museums, the council, Heritage Fund and local historians to build up the history of the building and to also promote the fact that we are bringing a high class patisserie into Oswestry.

“We’re putting ourselves into what is a fantastic, Grade II-listed building which is approaching 400-years-old.

“We want to be a destination for people to come and experience the afternoon tea, so people come not only to enjoy the food, but to visit this historic building and put it back on the map.”

To find out more, visit Niche Patisserie on Facebook. To donate to the Crowdfunder, visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/semi-finalist-bake-off-the-professionals-adam-cleal-patisserie-in-oswestry