A mother and daughter are looking to build a 'creative hub' in Macclesfield.

Wilfred Neils Arts Café will swing open its doors on Chestergate this autumn.

Behind the counter you will find artist and former professional actress Annie Martin and her daughter, SEN teacher and award-winning scriptwriter and filmmaker, Ella Muscroft.

"Wilfred Neils grew out of our shared love of creativity, community and bringing people together," Ella said.

"We kept talking about the kind of place we'd love to have locally - somewhere that combined a genuinely lovely independent café with a creative and community driven space.

"We wanted somewhere you could come in simply for a really good coffee or a bite to eat and somewhere you might also discover a local artist, see a performance, join a workshop, come to a book club, work remotely for a few hours or meet people you wouldn't otherwise have met.

"Eventually we stopped talking about how much we'd love a place like that and decided to create it ourselves.

"That's really where our three pillars came from: Coffee. Art. Community. None of those is an add-on to the others. They're all fundamental to what we want Wilfred Neils to become."

Wilfred Neils is named after two members of their family, grandad Antony Wilfred Martin and uncle Neil Martin.

Ella added: "They were both hugely important to our family, and we wanted the name of the business to have real meaning behind it rather than simply choosing something that sounded good.

"Bringing their names together felt like a lovely way of carrying a little piece of them into something new that we're building as a family.

"Being able to honour them in this way means an enormous amount to both of us.

"We hope Wilfred Neils becomes a place filled with people, conversations, creativity and memories so it feels particularly special that their names will always be at the heart of it."

Annie and Ella recognise that Macclesfield already has some fantastic cafés and coffee shops.

With this in mind, they want to make sure they are adding something new to the scene.

They will be serving up a selection of carefully chosen coffee and drinks, alongside freshly prepared vegetarian and vegan food.

However, supporting the local creative community will be just as important as the culinary offering.

"We're creating an arts and creative hub where people can come to experience and participate in things," Ella said.

Wilfred Neils will host play readings, poetry, new-writing previews, workshops, arts and crafts clubs, and much more.

It will also have an art shop showcasing work from local artists and makers.

Ella added: "We want to champion the enormous amount of creativity that already exists in Macclesfield and the surrounding area, and give some of it another home.

"Most importantly, we want the different parts of Wilfred Neils to feed into one another. Someone might initially discover us because they want a coffee, then notice the work of a local artist, come back for a poetry session and eventually join a club themselves.

"Equally, someone might come to see a play reading and discover their new favourite place for lunch.

"We don't really think of Wilfred Neils as a coffee shop with some arts attached to it. The coffee shop is one part of Wilfred Neils. The bigger idea is a home for coffee, art, theatre, creativity and community.

"And you absolutely don't need to consider yourself an artist to belong here. If all you want is a great cup of coffee, some homemade food and somewhere lovely to sit, that's just as much what Wilfred Neils is for.

"We keep coming back to the phrase 'A Space for Stories'. We want Wilfred Neils to be somewhere things happen - whether that's somebody writing something at one of our tables, meeting a new friend, seeing their work on a wall for the first time or simply having a conversation over coffee."

Wilfred Neils will focus on three pillars - Coffee, art and community (Credit: Supplied)

Wilfred Neils Arts Café will be located at 81 Chestergate.

This unit was previously home to Butterfly Events, but has been empty for some time now.

With Cornershop Coffee and Leyla's Dolci having recently opened nearby, Ella and Annie are looking forward to joining the thriving independent scene on Chestergate.

They said: "Chestergate feels like exactly the right home for Wilfred Neils.

"There's such a strong independent spirit in Macclesfield and we're really excited to become a small part of that

"One of the things we love about independent businesses is that they give a town personality. They're individual, people know the people behind them, and they create reasons to spend time locally.

"We want to complement what's already happening on Chestergate rather than replicate it, and hopefully bring something new to the street.

"We've only just got the keys and already the response and curiosity from people locally has been lovely, so we're really looking forward to getting the doors open."

Equally as exciting for them is the opportunity to work together as mother and daughter.

They continued: "We're incredibly excited to be working on this together! We have different strengths and different ideas, which means there are definitely plenty of discussions, but ultimately we're building something we both really believe in.

"There's something particularly special about being able to look around an empty building together now and know that, a few months from now, it'll be a place we've created from scratch.

"We're going to experience all of the terrifying bits and exciting bits together, which makes it even more meaningful."