The Cider Press
The Old Cider Press and Threshing Barn
One of the barns here on the farm is an old threshing barn with massive doors either side so the wind could blow the winnowed chaff out the door leaving clean wheat behind. Then sometime in the eighteen hundreds a sophisticated twin screw cider press was installed. In those days agricultural labour was paid for largely in cider. Unfortunately parts of the barn's roof and walls were allowed to collapse in the early nineteen forties, The walls were constructed from cob, a mixture of stone, clay and straw which is an excellent building material but no use if allowed to get wet. And the roof was thatched from local straw.
Now we have renovated the old barn, again helped by Countryside Stewardship, building up the cob walls and putting on a new green oak and thatch roof. And when the first juice flows off the press we'll be throwing a party!
You can read more about how we now use the barn for weddings.
The old cider press has been fully restored.
