The Bride Valley Farm Shop

General information

Bringing something to the community

Abbotsbury is a coastal village of mixed and diverse rural population alongside a more transient population of visitors to Chesil beach, the Swannery, coast path walkers and holiday campsites.

In 2006, the local butcher decided to relocate to the nearby town of Dorchester. It seemed an ideal outlet for Longlands Farm’s locally produced Longhorn beef. With such a vibrant tourist trade, it would have been tempting to establish a niche upmarket rare beef boutique in the village. However, as local farmer producers, we, the owners of Bride Valley Farm Shop are passionately committed to sustaining our local rural community and to ethical business practice.

We set about sourcing the best local meats and cheeses that are produced to the same high ethical and taste standards that we embrace. All goods sold are sourced from within 10 miles of the shop. Pork comes from a farm just outside the village, lamb from another local farmer. Eggs are brought in from a local farm. Smoked fish is sourced from Bridport, cheeses from local cheese producers. Even the apple juice is produced locally. Faggots, hams, pastries and pates are all created in the owner’s farm kitchen, using herbs from the shop’s own garden. There is one exception: a new range of crisps from Staffordshire from a company with a compatible business ethos.

Thus the shop supports local business whilst also continuing to provide the full range of traditional butchers’ products for local residents at fair and affordable prices. Evidence of this can be seen by price checking us versus local supermarkets.

Beyond this though is a greater ethic. Most farm shops command a premium for the taste that is delivered through traditional husbandry and production. It would have been an obvious and attractive business model to have copied. However, to do this would have made the shop financially inaccessible to the regular local population, forcing the elderly to shop in large supermarkets in Dorchester relying upon buses to take them there. With such a tiny premises and space so limited, it might have been easier to have focused on the high ticket items such as fillet or on the high volume/high traffic items like sausages and burgers that are in constant demand throughout the summer months among the campsite visitors. Instead of marginalising old fashioned products such as faggots and cuts of meat such as oxtail, Bride Valley Farm Shop gives them equal counter space. Recipes have been researched and tested and the shop now produces faggots and home cured bacon that are considered by many customers to be the finest available anywhere.

The shop aims to cater for the local population by providing for their needs all the year round and to this end we provide a weekly, free delivery service to nearby villages. This service is particularly important to the elderly and housebound, to some of whom it can be a lifeline, but other customers appreciate the convenience and make use of it. The surgery in the nearby village of Portesham arranges for the medicines for Abbotsbury residents to be collected from the shop each Tuesday. This is a service which those who do not drive find valuable.

Distinctiveness
There are a number of features that make Bride Valley Farm Shop stand out:
• It is a tiny shop – so small that the till has to sit in the centre of the counter mounted on a swinging bracket so that staff can pass through.
• We provide premium products at everyday prices to a diverse customer base, including local pubs. No one customer is more important than another.
• All merchandise is produced locally, thereby supporting local business.
• The owner/producer works behind the counter and in the kitchen so that she knows her customers and what they need.