New Bidlea Dairy shop proving very popular with customers

Bidlea Dairy have started welcoming customers through the doors at their newly-built shop in Twemlow. The shop had been a dream of Jill Brown and her family since they launched the on-site farm dairy as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold 18 months ago.

Initially based beneath an awning, the store has moved into a purpose-built area complete with dispensers for milk, dairy products, coffee and tea and a large outside covered seating area.

Jill was delighted to open the shop and had a surprise when the first two customers had come from Biddulph Moor – not far from Oxhey Farm where Bidlea’s 300-strong herd was established by her husband Ray's grandfather.

The Brown family, with Jill and Ray at the centre

She said: “We planned the opening of the dairy shop without a fuss but when I discovered where the ladies lived I was delighted.

“It was just unbelievable that the two are from the same area where Ray’s grandad established the herd.

“I couldn’t have planned it better and it certainly made our day and seemed a good omen for the future success of the shop.”

Since opening, the business has become a popular destination in the area and now the shop, with its outside tables, is expected to attract even more visitors.

Ray added: "Everything sold in the shop will either be our own dairy products or made locally and in the county as far as we can, but it will be introduced at a step at a time such as the cheese we are producing."

Since opening, the business has become a popular destination in the area and now the shop, with its outside tables, is expected to attract even more visitors.

With a large car park, nature trail, children’s rustic wooden playground attractions, and plans for a permissive footpath between the farm and Goostrey, it is all set to encourage more families.

Customers at the new shop

The shop sells bring-your-own bottle milk – bottles can be bought – and cartons, farm butter, locally produced eggs, ice cream in cartons and cones, Cheshire honey, coffee, teas, milkshakes, and a mouth-watering variety of cake from Jill’s farmhouse kitchen.

The shop is open seven days a week between 7am and 9pm, with ice cream available only between 9am and 7pm.