With summer just around the corner, Cheshire visitors will soon be flocking to the Ice Cream Farm for frozen treats to cool down. This year, the family who founded and run the award-winning Chester attraction are celebrating a landmark achievement – four decades in business.
First established in 1986, the ice cream business was the brainchild of Tattenhall dairy farmers Tom and Margaret Fell. In answer to EEC milk quotas restricting how much milk British famers could sell, they innovatively turned their surplus milk into a new product for market, “Real Dairy Ice Cream”.
Still a family business, the operation now consists of the Cheshire Ice Cream Farm and the Ice Cream Farm visitor attraction, headed up by brothers Graeme and Jonathan Fell, respectively. While run by the next generation, the heart of the business is still underpinned by Fell family values.
Youngest brother and CEO for the business, Jonathan Fell, commented that when his parents started making ice cream in the farm’s converted shed, no one could have anticipated that half a million visitors would be arriving each year for a treat. He said that their determination, hard work and foresight had paved the way, adding:
“What I’m most grateful for is that Graeme and I have been able to build on our parents’ foundations, and that they’ve been here to witness the growth of their legacy and to celebrate 40 years of our family business together.”
The Ice Cream Farm can be found at Drumlan Hall on Newton Lane in Tattenhall, just nine miles from the city centre via Whitchurch Road.