Member Article

Tea's up for farm

A County Durham farm is set to become an even more welcome sight for people walking and cycling the ‘Coast to Coast’ route with the creation of a new tearoom.

Hownsgill Farm, near Consett, is creating the tearoom to complement a bunkhouse which has already been developed in the farm’s former milking parlour.

Brothers John and Stephen Shaw converted the building last year when they switched from dairy farming to beef cattle, and are hoping that their latest venture will pull in even more passing visitors to add to their income.

John said: “We’re on the Coast to Coast route and this has helped attract plenty of guests to the bunkhouse, which is doing really well.

“There’s already a lot of interest in the tearoom as we’re putting the finishing touches in, and we hope it’ll be open in November.

“We’re also looking at how we can diversify our operations even further in future - potentially offering static caravan accommodation.”

The brothers received help from a grant from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), managed by One NorthEast.

One North East board member Ian Brown said: “Small businesses are at the heart of the rural economy, and in these particularly challenging times this funding will help in developing alternative sources of income, creating jobs and making operations more sustainable.

“It will also help promote entrepreneurship, which is absolutely key to increasing the range of businesses across different sectors in rural areas.”

For more information on RDPE in North East England, visit www.rdpenortheast.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .