You may well have noticed the building work going on at the top of Fore Street in Kingsbridge, writes Richard Harding.

A neglected townhouse next to the entrance to the car park is steadily being converted into Velarde — a contemporary art and craft gallery, sculpture garden, boutique apartments and artist studio.

Owner-directors husband and wife Matt and Fi Velarde are the couple behind the project and found 86 Fore Street in 2019.

It boasts the shop front, outbuildings and a south-facing walled garden.

Once completed there will be 1,400 square feet of light drenched open plan gallery space.

The programme of events will include six principal shows per year.

The garden features a relaxing water rill, and has been designed to showcase exceptional art and sculpture amongst a carefully considered native planting scheme.

They aim to encourage the presence of birds and insects and create a habitat for local wildlife.

Gallery Director Lorna Yabsley comes originally from Salcombe and once ran her own gallery.

She is a photographer and ceramicist and is bursting with enthusiasm for the project: “Matt, Fi and I have been great friends for many years. Matt is a fine art photographer and Fi is a painter and print maker.

‘‘They spend a lot of time down in Devon at their home here.

“They both have a passion for contemporary art and crafts and for many years have wanted to start a gallery but there are many galleries around and we wanted to be a bit different including the way in which the shows are curated by our panel consisting of myself, Matt and Fi as well as fine art specialists Mercedes and Nicky.

“It will include a sculpture garden as well as two spaces. “Gallery One is the main space with group shows, a mixture of different artists, different mediums — painting, photography, ceramics, woodturning and it’s contemporary, fresh and will generally be dedicated to a solo artist, a joint show or featured show. This may be on themes such as miniatures or 3D printed ceramics. The smaller Gallery Two will display featured work.

There were challenges along the way as Lorna explains: “The building wasn’t listed but we had a very protracted and painful planning process.

“We’ve had to build most of the building from scratch as there really wasn’t much left of the original building, but we have left the gable brick end and a few features.”

Lorna then gave her views on local retail: ‘‘People have been trading here since the early 18th century selling things from the fronts of their houses.

“When it comes to Fore Street we need shops but not so many as we did because shopping habits are changing.”

The Velardes are committed to supporting the local area as Lorna said: ‘‘They made a point of hiring local trades and crafts people and wanted to support the local area as much as possible.

They are aware that the gallery is sited in the middle of rural Devon rather than in London and want people to come in and look at the artworks without feeling under any pressure to buy.’’

The project includes two luxury flats on the second floor and the income from these will help to fund the initial stages of the business.

There is no time to lose says Lorna: ‘‘We will be opening to the public on July 22 and everything is in hand for that.

Lorna added that there was another project on the go: “We are working with Kingsbridge Community College running a mentoring programme to help develop talented local students in the arts,’’ she said.

‘‘Devon Wildlife will be our charity of the year next year.

‘‘As for Matt and Fi, I am trying to encourage them both to show their work but they are very modest.’’

To find out more you can visit: https://www.velarde.co.uk/ where you can sign up for Velarde News, with advance notification of upcoming Private Views. You can also follow them on Instagram.