Venture into the historic village of Dunham and you'll find Greater Manchester's only cider press where you can drink in the apple orchards. At the Dunham Press Cider you can drink the fruits of the farmers' labours in the stunning and tranquil orchard - which feels a world away from the metropolis despite being just minutes off the M56.
The owners of Dunham Press Cider opened a public shop and tearooms on their farm during lockdown and haven't looked back since. Now it's something of a hidden gem, just on the outskirts of Altrincham, for a quirky day out and to enjoy a home-pressed apple juice or cider out among the very trees that bore the fruit.
Before the pandemic, the fruit farm and cider press had mostly supplied apple juices and ciders to the hospitality industry. But when lockdown was first enforced in March 2020, that side of the business almost completely dried up.
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It got the owners, Chris and Alison Hewitt, thinking of how they could boost their trade in a new way - and their Apple Barn was the result. The farm is part of the historic Dunham Massey estate, and Chris said landlords The National Trust have been brilliant in supporting the venture.
Now, on glorious summer days you can sit out in the apple orchard while picking up a slice of home-made cake and a cold glass of freshly-pressed apple juice, cider or perry. In the shop itself you can pick up bottles of both cider and juice to take away with you too.
Chris, 51, laughs: "It is a little bit of a cider lover's dream here, you could say that. This was our lockdown project - we opened up the shop 12 months ago but our family have been on the farm here since the 1930s.
"We started planting the fruit orchards 12, 13 years ago and so they're really just coming to fruition now. We've got 5,000 apple trees over 30 acres and 70 varieties of apples."
Visitors can head down to the farm to do cider and perry tastings, while at the weekend they serve up fresh made pizzas as well. The tearooms, with hot drinks, teas as well as the ciders and apple juices of course, are open on Mondays, Fridays and weekends.
Chris said: "When the weather is really nice, it's really peaceful to sit out in the orchard, just to sit and enjoy the peace and quiet. We serve bottles of cider, or if you're a traditionalist we can pour direct from a 5,000 litre tank and we've just started to do stuff out of a keg as well."
The team have also found that the tranquil setting has persuaded those who may not have enjoyed cider for years to give it another try. Chris laughed: "As a youngster I wasn't one of those who had a bad experience at 16 drinking dodgy cider on a park bench.
"The amount of people who come and say no, no I've not drunk cider since I was a teenager you wouldn't believe - but it's a very different product now.
"Everything we press from the apple goes into the juice, we don't put artificial flavours or sweeteners in it's all from the juice. We are probably one of the very few commercial apple orchards in the north west. We are quite unique really."
While there's a "June drop" in the orchard, when trees naturally shed excess fruit, the main season for the apple crop is at the end of August when the pressing starts in earnest. Chris adds: "But we can go through to early December, it all depends on the varieties, we have 70 different varieties here."
Lockdown was the motivation for the change in the business, but it has taken it in a new and exciting direction. Chris said: "Before lockdown we dealt with local bars and local and regional cider festivals. When lockdown happened our sales dried up overnight.
"We got through to the end of the year, but then we realised we needed our own point of sale. So we converted a small farm building so people could come in, try our cider, and do the tea, coffee and cakes alongside to add that extra dimension to it.
"We are really proud of where the business is now going for us. Our footfall is slowly increasing as people are getting to know about us. We're working closely with the National Trust who are our landlords. They helped us plant the last ten acre of orchards."
Chris with wife Alison, 54, and their six children (who range from 10 up to 29) all get involved in helping with the business in one way or another, making it a real family affair. And Chris's dad, who used to run the farm, also still keeps a hand in too.
Apple juice is priced from £2 a bottle, while ciders range in price from £4.50 up to £10 for their special whisky cask cider. They sell a variety of flavours from medium dry, medium sweet, lightly sparkling and medium still that around the 6% alcohol mark, and recently released their first rhubarb cider.
And they even offer a special pressing service for other people. Chris said: "Come the Autumn when fruit ripens we can turn it into apple juice or cider for customers as well. For the juices, you'd need at least 20 kilos, anything above that we can quite easily press that.
"If you've got a young family most likely you'd want it turned into apple juice, but we can also make it into cider - it's great for Christmas gifts."
Dunham Press Cider, Sawpit Street, Dunham Massey, Altrincham WA14 5SJ is open on Fridays 3pm to 9m, Saturdays 10.30am to 9pm, Sundays 10.30am to 6pm and Mondays 10.30am to 4pm.
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