Group activities Herefordshire

Fair Oak cider is made on our farm in a seventeenth-century stone mill which is once again, after a gap of a hundred years, being worked by a horse. We believe only two mills in the country are now being worked in this way.

Old varieties of cider apples are harvested from small orchards around the Golden Valley, crushed in the mill, and then squeezed through hessian on the stone press in the traditional fashion.

Through winter and spring the juice is left to ferment in the cider house, being checked and racked regularly as the flavours develop. The result is a range of refreshing craft ciders – dry, medium and sweet, still and sparkling.

The mill and press were semi-derelict when we first came to Fair Oak; but with the help of skilful friends, and elderly neighbours who remembered making cider with horses in their youth, we were able to restore them to working order in 2012.