THE HISTORY OF BOUNDARY FARM
Vine Cottage at Boundary Farm became home to the Hewitt family when Kenneth, a smart young farmer from High Legh, and his wife Eleanor, a Cumberland lass better known as Nell took on the farm in 1938. They had one daughter, Elizabeth, who was tragically killed in an accident when she was 6 years old, 10 days after the birth of her brother John. Kenneth and Nell had two more children, Helen and Alan, and all three children grew up on Sawpit Street helping around the farm.
Astutely, Lord Stamford had ensured that every farm on his Estate had an orchard, so that the fruit picked in Autumn provided money for the rent, and apples have been grown at Boundary Farm since the mid-1800s. With varieties like Lanes Prince Albert, Hangy Down, Bramley, James Grieve and Laxton Superb which were originally grown here, we have spent the last 14 years curating the orchard varieties so that we have a wide range of modern, as well as heritage varieties.
At the turn of the century there were in the region of 50 small holdings in Dunham Massey, and even at the time of his death in 1970, there were 36 farms across the Estate. Boundary Farm was relatively large, at 17.5 acres, and a rental of 60 pounds and 10 shillings per year for Kenneth and his family. This would be worth £1,103.16 in today's money!
During the war years and beyond, The Apple Barn building was originally home to 2 Clydesdale horses and 4 cows. Nell had been a dairy maid and used the milk from the cows to produce butter and cheese. Kenneth kept chickens for egg production and also raised pigs, with 12 breeding sows and a boar ensuring there were always several dozen fattening pigs for pork and bacon. Helen and John eventually left the farm for other careers, and when Kenneth passed away, his youngest son Alan became the tenant of Boundary Farm.
Alan married Carolyn in 1967, and moved to The Bothy, a beautiful farm house once occupied by Lord Stamford’s gardening staff. The house stands proud on the hill at the top of the 3 acre walled garden that supplied Lord Stamford’s table, along with the venison from the deer park. There are remnants of beautiful Victorian greenhouses built against the 12’ wall around the garden, heated through raised water pipes on terracotta greenhouse floors. Nell remained at Vine Cottage until 2000 when she required nursing care, and new tenants moved into the dwelling at the front of the Farm.
In 1970, Alan’s first son, Chris, was born. Chris grew up wanting to be a farmer, and at 16 he went to horticultural college. At 18, he had an Australian adventure, experiencing farming on a much grander scale, but eventually came back to work alongside his dad on the farm at Sawpit Street.
Chris’s little brother, Jonny, was born three years later and with a growing family Alan decided to take Boundary Farm in a new direction. Second-class fruit was worthless at that time, and the rent still had to be paid! The orchards were all but removed from the farm, and instead Alan concentrated on growing to supply the new type of retail outlets springing up - supermarkets. They wanted fresh, high quality fruit and vegetables, and this meant leeks, sprouts, lettuce and cabbage. Boundary Farm was one of the first growers of little gem and lollo rosso lettuce in the 1970s.
The Farm continued to produce brassicas and other vegetables for the next couple of decades, although producing organically and sustainably became more and more challenging on such a relatively small scale, and there were some years the Farm did not generate enough income to live off.
As Alan reached what we think of as retirement age, (farmers never really retire!) he turned his thoughts back to the time when Boundary Farm was covered in apple trees. And so began his retirement project - Dunham Massey Apple Juice.
Fast forward to today and what started off as dad Alan's retirement project has certainly turned into something bigger! From his initial replanting and first apple juice production in 2008, the orchard has expanded both in size and range of varieties.
Each year we plant more trees, in conjunction with The National Trust who are supportive of their approach to managing the land. There are over 70 different apples in the orchards now, including the original heritage varieties, alongside those more familiar varieties such as Cox, Jazz and Russet. Trees cover over 30 acres and the orchard is more than twice its size in 1870.
Then folk started to ask...”where is the cider?” That was a whole different venture to the apple juice production, and one that Alan was happy to let Chris take up….
CHRIS, THE APPLE JUICE AND CIDER MAKER
Chris planted our first cider varieties in 2010 and fermented our first cider in 2012. Originally we sourced our apples for cider from an additional orchard we harvest near Chester, as it can take up to 5 years to have a crop large enough to produce a reasonable quantity.
At this time, Chris was balancing his juice and cider making with other horticultural activity. He was once told by a wise cider maker it would take 10 years for him to turn a profit. Farming in all its forms does seem to be a vocation rather than a get rich quick scheme - it is a long term business and cycles are annual and subject to the mercy of nature. There are so many things that can - and do - go wrong. Resilience and perseverance, together with patience and determination are key skills!
Initially, Chris used varieties such as Katy and James Grieve to produce a light, slightly sharp cider. He learned a lot in those early days, and realised that he needed to look at more tannin rich apple varieties to add more depth of flavour to the ciders.
Any cidermaker will tell you the joy of the job is in experimentation and developing what works well, both for the terroir of the farm and in the flavours of produce, using different cultured or wild yeast for example will give you very different results. One of the best jobs is the blending and tasting of the fermented and matured juice.
THE INCEPTION OF THE APPLE BARN
Out of adversity comes opportunity, as Benjamin Franklin said, and so it was for us. We had lost many of our traditional outlets for our ciders and juice. Supplying mostly to the small bars, bottle shops and local retailers impacted hugely by Covid, our orders dried up. And to make matters worse, we were unable to access most of the help offered to businesses at that time. The National Trust had recently supported our business to double its production facility and the new half of the Cider Shed was erected. With additional production space, more capital repayment costs and fewer customers, we had to think radically…
Sitting in a sunny orchard in the early summer of 2020 during the first lockdown, and with time to ponder, we developed the idea of putting a small retail outlet at the farm. With the space to move bottling and pasteurising activity from the wet barn into the shed, we knew we had the perfect setting.
It took a second lockdown to convince us it was the right thing to do, and in January 2021 we began the project. Taking 5 months of hard work in the evenings and at weekends, we completed much of the work ourselves alongside skilled trades on the electrics, joinery, and plumbing. Helped by a few dedicated friends (you learn lots about people in times of adversity) we were able to open the door for business as the lockdown was lifted, officially welcoming our first customers on July 17th 2021.
WHAT IS THE APPLE BARN ALL ABOUT?
We want to bring quality cider and apple juice to the fore. Many consumers will only have experienced apple juice and ciders made through large scale production. It would be fair to say that these products are a world away from those which we produce here at Dunham Apples, and we wanted to shout about that!