You can't lick it

Snugbury's ice cream has a delightful traditional taste. Penny Whitehouse discovered their recipe for success.

SUNLIGHT dapples the pretty courtyard of Chris and Cheryl Sadler's farmyard where the Snugbury Ice Cream Shop nestles in a corner of the old stable block. Visitors sit on rustic benches in the warm summer sunshine licking their ice creams and listening to the cows in a nearby field pulling at the grass and munching.  It looks and sounds like an idyllic English pastoral scene and that's just what it is, since Snugbury's at Park Farm, Hurleston, sits comfortably in the middle of the Dorfold Estate in Cheshire, close to the historic market town of Nantwich.  

The company, now in its second successful decade is a living example of how diversification can pay dividends for an entrepreneurial farmer like Chris Sadler. After learning his trade as a tenant farmer on the Dorfold Estate, Chris developed a yen to do something different.  In 1986 he began selling vegetables and free-range eggs from the back door. Milk and cream from real Jersey cows were soon added to the list. From there it was a short step into the ice cream business. 

"We found we had cream left over at the end of the day, so we decided to have a go at making ice cream, which was an instant success," explains Chris, "But we soon had to decide whether or not we were going to do the job properly. After all, you can't really sell much from your kitchen window sill!"  The decision to 'do the job properly' was the turning point for Chris and Cheryl. 'We spent a whole winter researching flavours and making ice cream," says Chris. Their work paid off, and with assistance and training from Reaseheath Agricultural College and the support of NatWest bank Snugbury's Ice Cream was born. Today, Chris, Cheryl and their three girls, Hannah (15), Kitty (12) and Cleo (7), live and work on the Ice Cream Farm which, thanks to their hard work is now a roaring success. 

Snugbury's is an all-round-the-year experience for families, and is open every day except Christmas and New Year. A huge variety of flavours are to be found in the little shop - 36 at the last count! Some flavours are chosen quite by chance: "When I was expecting Cleo I took a fancy to chocolate oranges," smiles Cheryl, "so they made me some chocolate orange ice cream and it proved very popular with other people too. We listen to our customers and try to experiment with the flavours they request. That way we can be pretty sure we are producing what people actually want. Of course, things don't always go quite according to plan. Once we did add green colouring to the clotted cream by mistake, it tasted fine but looked a bit odd" she adds. Snugbury's current range includes such fanciful flavours as creamy pink Turkish delight, Honeycomb; a delicious vanilla ice cream with chunks of honeycomb that melt through it; tropical Twist, a confection flavoured with smooth mango, and Blackcurrant and Elderflower; a delicate blend of summer flavours. 

Chris and Cheryl are also particularly proud of Snugbury's diabetic ice cream, which tastes so good it won a National Award. Out in the fields, the gentle honey coloured cows munch steadily, raising their doe eyes to watch as people pass. Children sit happily in the sunshine; a little boy wipes drippy ice cream from his chin. Another delicious summer's day in ice cream heaven.

Reference

Whitehouse P (2002)'You can't lick it', Cheshire Life, May 2002, pp. 202 - 203.