1962
The farm
Ruth's grandfather buys Fernhill with forty Gloucester cows.
A dairy farm that learned to bake
Fernhill has been a dairy farm since Ruth's grandfather bought it in 1962. In 2009 Ruth Calloway baked a honey cake for the village fete with honey from the farm's first two hives. It sold out in twenty minutes.
By the next summer there was a table at the gate on Sundays; by the one after, a queue, and a brick oven in the old calf shed.
Today the bakehouse fills the counter six days a week, the tea room seats forty by the fire, and the old barn is a shop full of the valley's best.
Fernhill so far
2009
The first cake
A honey cake for the village fete sells out in twenty minutes.
2016
The barn
The stone barn becomes a tea room and a farm shop.
2023
The hives
Twelve hives on the hay meadows give the bakehouse all its honey.
1962Farming since
300+Slices on a Sunday
12Hives on the meadows
12Miles to the furthest supplier
The people behind the counter
Ruth Calloway
Baker and founder
Still bakes every honey cake herself.
Tom Calloway
Dairy and bees
Milks the herd and keeps the hives.
Priya Nair
Pastry
The cardamom buns were her idea.
Sam Hollis
Tea room and shop
Knows every supplier by their first name.