'It's time to go out and do what everybody else does' - Pick your own shop at farm overlooking Peterborough closes its gates for the final time after 52 years
The Hill Farm Pick Your Own farm has been open since 1972.
A popular pick your own farm shop close to Peterborough has closed after 52 years.
The Hill Farm Pick Your Own and Farm Shop at Hill Farm on Oundle Road, Chesterton closed its gates from the final time on Thursday (October 31).
Farmer Paddy Ivens, who runs the farm along with his wife Susannah has said that the couple felt the time to strike for a better work-life balance to enable them to spend more time their family.
He said: “We have been trading for 52 years and like everybody, there comes a point where the time is right to pull stumps. I am in my 60s now, I have got grandkids now. I missed a lot of my children growing up because of my working every weekend through the summer months and I don’t want to do that again. I’ve decided it’s time to strike a better work life balance.
“We’ve been absolutely blown away by the response from the public. There’s been a lot of people saying they’re sorry to see us go but wishing us well, which is lovely. Our customer base has been very loyal to us over the years and we are forever grateful for that. The time has just come to concentrate on the rest of our lives.
“We’ve decided we need to spend more time with out families and go out and do what everybody else does at the weekends and take some summer holidays, which I’ve never been able to do.”
Going forward, the farm will continue to operate as normal with Paddy focusing on the environmental side; planting a number of new wildflower meadows and trees.
Hill Farm was founded in the 1970s when John and Jill Ivens brought the farm and decided to change it from a traditional arable and livestock farm to a pick your own farm. Their son Paddy, and his wife Susannah, now runs the farm. There is also a caravan site on the farm.
A statement from Susannah and Paddy added: “Paddy has worked every year on the farm since he was 15 years old. Susannah first came to the farm for a summer job whilst studying at university.
“Though we will obviously miss our lovely and loyal customers, we really are ready to have a change and have our weekends back.
“There are very many factors behind our decision to close this side of our business, the majority of them personal.
“We really hope that we and Paddy's parents, Jill and John, have given our customers some happy memories of picking our homegrown crops and playing with our friendly border collies throughout the generations.
“Thank you for all your support over the last 52 years, and we wish you well.
“We hope you find another PYO farm to visit in future years - you never know, we may even see you there!
“We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our suppliers and our wonderful staff, both past and present, whom we have been very proud of over the years.”