WHEN Cogges Manor Farm Museum in Witney reopens on Sunday a new cafe will also open its doors.

The Real Food Café will be the first business to set up at the site, in a move trustees hope will help finance the museum.

It will sell food and coffee, as well as bread and cakes to take home.

The museum closed in 2009, after Oxfordshire County Council, which had run the facility, withdrew funding.

Volunteer-run Cogges Heritage Trust has taken over the site, with the lease granted last Tuesday, and 50 volunteers have agreed to help run it.

The trustees hope more businesses will move to the site, with the rents helping to finance the museum.

The cafe has been created by William Black, the man behind the Natural Bread Company in Woodstock and Eynsham.

The cafe will be open Tuesday to Sunday, from 10am to 5pm, and seats 50 to 60 people. It does not require museum entry to eat there.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, Mr Black plans to stay open late and bring in chefs from around the world.

He added: “It is a risk, but the catchment area is wide enough for it to work.”

Museum trustee Judy Niner said: “The contribution the cafe is able to make to Cogges helps to run it. But leasing the site to businesses is just one way to make Cogges work.”

She added: “We were not expecting businesses to come forward until we were open and running, and we only got the keys last Tuesday.”

Entry at weekends will cost £5 for adults and £2.50 for five-to-16 year olds.

Entry will be free on weekdays.

To celebrate the reopening, the museum will host a food market with live music on Sunday from 10am to 5pm. It will be free to enter.

The market will feature local produce and food from North Africa, Lebanon and Italy, j ewellery and flowers.