Winnall Valley Road, at the heart of Winchester’s industrial estate, is quiet most of the time. Built mostly of unassuming offices and warehouses, companies on the street include a car showroom, brewery, electrician and biotech equipment firm.

But there is one business which does things a little differently.

Perlins Community Project is a day service for adults with learning disabilities. Thirty-four members, suffering from conditions like autism, Asperger’s and Down’s syndrome, pay £70 a day from their social services allowance to work on creative and practical activities.

Every morning the group sits around a table, pulling well-worn cards from a wooden box in the centre. Each card depicts a different activity, from animation to woodwork, banking to bike repairs, painting in watercolour and recording music.

There are more than 100 things to do and they take it turns to decide on a plan for the day.

Today is Friday – art day. One group gets working on screen prints and sketches while another puts the finishing touches to a wooden breakfast bar, using hammers and drills under supervision.

The centre is run by the brothers Slimm, Daniel and George, who ferry members to and from the centre every day in their minibus. They grew up on Perlins Farm in Durley, where their parents have run an agricultural day service for more than 20 years.

“What they do out there is very rural,” Daniel says. “Social services wanted something where people come to us and do stuff in the community, not just on a farm. We happened to be in a position where we could do that.”

At their parents’ request the pair launched Winchester’s own Perlins project in 2009, as an allotment in Park Road.

With new members came new interests, and the business continued to expand as they moved to the unit in Winnall.

One of the project’s core principles throughout has been that activities should serve the entire group. Today, for example, Greg Vincent and Teddy Stevens are screen printing, washing their tools in a work sink crafted by their peers.

Greg, 24, from Boyatt Wood, has severe epilepsy and uses his days here to explore his creative talents. He says George and Daniel have helped him every step of the way.

“It means so much to me,” he says. “I’m happy with what I’m doing and they have been really, really helpful.”

Art has taken flight at Perlins thanks to Daniel’s wife, Gemma, who got involved part-time after coming in to teach sewing.

“People are getting better and getting their confidence up,” she says. “Some people say they can’t draw, but actually everyone can do something now. It’s about finding what they’re good at and improving that.

“It’s exciting because we feel like we’ve kind of created something – we feel like there aren’t boundaries to the stuff you can do. We’re moving forward all the time.”

And they’re doing it by launching art as social enterprise, where members can sell their work as frames, postcards or calendars.

“They have got to have a bit of ownership about it,” Daniel says. “We do this all together. People feel like it’s their project.

“Part of what we’re assessing is that of most that financial stuff will go back to them. It’s a very hard thing to work out without giving it a try.”

The brothers initially agreed to run the project for four years, but with this innovative new enterprise on the horizon they have no plans to stop.

George says: “It does go back to giving them the ability to try those things. At home people tend to go at a certain pace. When people are working here we really do step back and let them use their skills.

“We’re really lucky to work with the people we work with.”