Research: Hawarden Estate
The Farm Shop
The Farm Shop has an absolute passion for real food and natural products. It sources the very best specialist produce it can find, primarily from local suppliers, much of it handmade in small batches and limited editions. Everything is as tasty, healthy, new and fresh as it can be.
Food with local provenance is key to what the Hawarden Estate Farm Shop offer, which makes customers proud to support their local farmers. The fresh meat is sourced directly from farms on the Hawarden Estate. The farmers work hand-in-hand the head butcher, to produce meat for customers that has the perfect husbandry, conformation and fat coverage.
The food hall supplies Fresh fruit and vegetables grown on surrounding farms to the local community as well as other local produce such as freshly handmade cakes and chocolates, chutneys, relishes, jams, bread delivered daily, juices made from estate-grown fruit, cheeses from the best artisan cheesemongers, many of them local. This creates a great hub of activity championing local produce removing one of the key problems identified with local produce, that it is difficult to source, bringing a range of local suppliers produce under one roof within easy reach for the local community.
General Store
In December of 2015 Hawarden Estate opened a 'general store' in neighbouring town of Broughtons shopping park which sees 10 million annual visitors, this further encourages the local community to choose local produce rivalling national mass produce chains. Like a traditional village shop, Hawarden Estate Farm Shop believe in friendliness, good service and putting the customer first. The Café and General Store is original, cheerful, fun and welcoming for all ages, offering efficient and committed service by a Team that know - and truly believe in - the products they sell.
It will see them bring a traditional village shop offer and home grown food to compete with the usual retail park national chain choices. Shop manager Alan Downes said: “Firmly believing in the traditional village shop, where friendliness, service and putting the customer first are core values, the general store and cafe will offer a combination of cafe, general food store and homewares shop. He added: “Today everyone uses words like ‘seasonal’ and ‘local’ and most of them are talking nonsense; but the Hawarden Estate Farm Shop has form here, it grows and raises much of the food it sells on its own farm and works with a large, established network of efficient local suppliers.
Good Life Festival
The Good Life Experience is a festival like no other. It was founded in 2014 by Cerys Matthews, Steve 'Abbo' Abbott and Charlie and Caroline Gladstone who have created a British festival that is genuinely different. It is a weekend of the very best Music, Food, Books, Workshops, and The Great Outdoors. Set in the grounds of the Hawarden estate and the Farm shop this festival experience brings together outdoors culture that echos the ethos of the Farm Shop's of local homegrown culture and further brings a community together around the concept of sustainability within food, culture and entertainment.
The Glynne Arms
The Farm shop also has a sister business located in the centre of the village, the Glynne Arms Pub. The Glynne Arms, constructed around 1812, was named in honour of the Glynne Family, whose ancestral seat was Hawarden Castle. Hawarden Estate and Castle are now under the stewardship of Sir William Gladstone and his son Charlie. Backed up by the enthusiasm of Charlie’s family and a team of professionals working at Hawarden, they have now restored The Glynne to its former glory, and more taking pride in its place at the heart of this traditionally hard-working community.
Sister business to the Hawarden Estate Farm Shop, the Glynne Arms follows the same ethos of real food, natural products. The food menu uses ingredients from the farm for all of their fresh fruit and vegetables. The butchery at the Farm Shop handles our meat, sausages, poultry and game, much of which is also raised on Hawarden Estate farms. The multi award-winning pub is one of only two pubs in Flintshire to feature in the latest Michelin Eating Out in Pubs Guide. As in previous years, trained, anonymous Michelin inspectors choose establishments ranging from country inns to urban gastropubs based on the quality of their food. This Promotes the farm shop and its ingredients, further articulating the benefits of local produce over mass production as these ingredients are of michelin standard and can produce 5 star cuisine.
Charlie And Caroline Founders
Behind the revival of the Glynne Arms are Charlie and Caroline Gladstone. They live in the highlands of Scotland where they run a business called Pedlars, and spend a fair bit of time in Hawarden where Charlie’s parents live; they also own the Hawarden Estate Farm Shop just down the road. They have six children and five dogs.
Charlie and Caroline are constantly bursting with ideas and optimism, which is possibly why, when they looked at the Glynne Arms, they saw not a dilapidated disaster, but a warmly welcoming village hub done up with style and serving great, unpretentious, locally-sourced food. I am lucky to be in direct contact with Charles for feedback and questions, this is something that would simply not happen within a large scale corporation and ensures I will received prompt and effective feedback to aid the development of my resolutions.
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