There’s something so special about pottering around a farm shop and finding treasures – and the Welbeck Farm Shop is full of them.
We spoke to the farm shop director, Oliver Stubbins, about 20 years of championing local producers and what makes the estate such a wonderful place to visit.
If you’re looking for events this weekend, the shop (welbeckfarmshop.co.uk) is offering 20 products at 20% discount (October 16-18). Plus, visiting the farm shop is a lovely thing to do in Nottingham. For more guides and features, subscribe to The Notts Edit to receive our articles in your inbox for free.
Welbeck Farm Shop is celebrating 20 years of curating quality produce
By Eve Smallman
The farm shop is celebrating its 20th anniversary! How does this feel?
It’s a massive achievement. I’m the director and I’ve been here for 11 of those 20 years, so I haven’t been here from the start. We do have a member of staff, Sarah Braithwaite, who’s been here for the full 20 years, and she’ll be receiving her 20-year service award this week. We’ve also got a lot of staff who’ve been here for more than 10 years.
It’s been a staggered journey. Quite a few producers started up around the same time as the farm shop. The estate covers 15,000 acres, and the owners are really passionate about food and art, so a lot of the older estate buildings have been transformed.
The business really transformed around Covid. Before that, we were ticking along very nicely. We had a good local reputation and had won quite a few awards, but then Covid hit and demand changed overnight.
We didn’t know what was happening, and neither did the staff. Demand went really high, and we were being offered all sorts of products, including Polish chicken and Brazilian beef, because everybody was trying to sell everything. But we stuck to our ethos and our existing network of suppliers. We tried to be really consistent in what we did.
What have been some highlights over the years?
I’ve been here for 11 years, and I’ve been inside 10 Downing Street, been to Parliament, and visited places you’d never think you’d manage to get to when you work in a small business. I think that’s a testament to the reputation of the estate and what the team is achieving in a shop like ours.
Earlier this year, we went down to Parliament and won what they call a Rural Oscar from the Countryside Alliance. In 2021, we won UK Small Farm Shop of the Year. Then, in 2024, we won UK Large Farm Shop of the Year. We hadn’t laid another brick or grown by an inch – we’d simply reached the revenue criteria to qualify as a large farm shop.
It’s lovely when your peers around the country acknowledge what you’re doing. But seeing local customers and people buying things is always the best bit. It’s about building relationships with suppliers and customers, too.
What have been some of the biggest challenges?
Our biggest challenge at the moment is space. We’ve grown quite considerably over the years, and although we’re on this lovely 15,000-acre estate, we’re in a corner of it, in the old historic walled garden. Everything around us is listed, which makes opportunities to expand really difficult.
Another challenge is keeping up with developments in food. Everyone’s knowledge of food has improved so much. When I joined 11 years ago, the owner was talking to me during my induction about ultra-processed foods. I think that’s something that’s really come into the public eye over the last two or three years, but the family here have been beating that drum for a while. We’ve been ahead of the curve on some things.
Which products have been on the shelves for a long time, and why have they stood the test of time?
Stichelton cheese is certainly one of them. We’ve had a long-standing relationship with Neal’s Yard Dairy, which is a big distributor and was also involved in founding Borough Market in London. They’ve supplied us since day one, so we’ve been stocking their British farmhouse cheeses for 20 years, including Stichelton, which is made on the estate. Stichelton has a phenomenal reputation.
One story I like to tell is that it’s the only British cheese that’s ever been served at a French state dinner. King Charles was served Stichelton when he visited France. When you think that it’s made just two miles from the farm shop, it’s quite amazing how popular it is outside our little local network.
We’ve also got an amazing new cheesemaker on the estate who’s just passed his first anniversary. Jake Goldstein at Primrose Creamery has won two Golden Fork awards at the Great Taste Awards. Then Jake has come along and is making very different cheeses with the same milk. He only makes two products, and both won three stars at the Great Taste Awards, going on to win further awards. There’s a lovely contrast between the old and the new, just in cheese.
We’ve also had the brewery here for a long time, so we sell the full range from Welbeck Abbey Brewery, as well as products from Welbeck Bakehouse. Those have been on the shelves since we opened, really. We’ve got another baker, Sally James, who’s based in Norton, near Newark. She’s been baking for us for 20 years, too, and her cakes have been here all that time.
Do you have any personal favourite products you always return to?
Stichelton is one. I’m not a fan of blue cheese, so when I joined, I tried it because it’s an institution here. Like a lot of people who aren’t particularly keen on blue cheese, I found it’s so creamy because it’s made from raw milk that it isn’t quite as potent as you might expect. That was my surprise when I first got here. But you’ll normally find me at the butcher’s counter. A good steak – a nice rib-eye steak – is a regular haunt.
I also love the produce from the walled garden. We used to have the biggest walled gardens in the whole of the UK, and the shop and car park are actually based in just a small part of what those gardens used to be.
We’ve got a friend, Steve Rye, who started growing there again about four years ago. He’s growing vegetables galore, and they’re incredible when you compare them with mass-produced produce. The difference is quite scary.
Lots of people have allotments and grow their own, but I’m not particularly skilled and don’t have that much time. So I get the joy of having produce as fresh as someone might get from their own allotment, but I can buy it here.
20 products at 20% discount over the weekend (October 16-18)
Seasonal Squash
Stichelton cheese
Egglestone cheese
Lindley cheese
Welbeck Gin
Red Feather ale
Welbeck Bakehouse 4-seed sourdough crispbreads
Welbeck Bakehouse 4-pack cookies
Welbeck Tote bags
Welbeck Jute bags
Welbeck Hamper boxes
Cacklebean Eggs
Wooden chopping boards, handmade in Leicestershire
Lincolnshire Plum Bread
Corra Linn cheese
Ashcombe cheese
Parmesan cheese
Belvoir drinks
Northern Pasta
Edmonds cocktails
What makes the farm shop different from others around the region and the country?
The thing with farm shops is that they’re all different. You could pick one up and move it to another location, and it just wouldn’t work. I think every farm shop is brilliant in its own right and is right for its own supply network, customer base and demand.
What we pride ourselves on here is being more of a home chef’s larder. We sell things we love and try to source them locally where we can, but we don’t have mileage restrictions. If the best pasta is in Italy, we’ll buy Italian pasta. If the best charcuterie is Italian, we’ll buy that, too. We look locally and further afield, but quality and taste are always the benchmark.
The range is designed for somebody who wants to go home, cook passionately and be proud of what they’re serving. Being a home chef’s larder has always been the unspoken theme of the shop.
For someone who hasn’t visited before, why should they come?
I think we’re the front door to a lot of other things that happen on the estate. About 60% of everything we sell is either made or grown here, which is a big percentage, although it’s certainly not everything. We’re showcasing the work of the hardworking food growers and producers in our network.
Visitors can also book experiences such as brewery tours, rum tours and garden tours. There are certain times when you can go into the private areas of the estate, which is generally closed to the public. The passion is very much there, and we’re trying to pass that on to visitors.
We’ve also got some amazing neighbours. There’s a gallery next door, which houses a Michelangelo – the only one north of Cambridge – as well as a garden centre and beautiful countryside walks.
There’s far more to discover than just the farm shop when you come to visit.
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