Our Story
“Taking 18 months to complete, the cafe is housed in a converted 17th century and Grade ll listed barn that had been largely redundant for several years. We have turned it into a truly spectacular space which contains a considerable amount of stone from the ruins of the priory.”
Back in 2015 when the national dairy industry was faced with several difficulties and many dairies went out of business, we were having to make some very hard decisions about our herd of 120 Holstein Friesian cows. We’d heard about Bungay farmer Jonny Crickmore, who had started selling raw milk form a vending machine. We met with Jonny and he explained exactly what was involved in selling raw milk and thought that we would give it a go. It changed everything. We found that people loved having that direct and very real connection to their milk. Instead of being transported, stored, heat treated, standardised, homogenised, packed and distributed, raw milk has never left the farm and is always less that 48hrs old.
After a while of selling and building up significant local support for the product, they started to ask for other things like local cheese, butter and ice cream. With help from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) we built and opened The Little Dairy Shop. Totally unmanned and based on self-service and an honesty box, the shop has always been relentlessly busy (in lockdown we were selling 200 litres of milk a day!). The Priory attracts local families, walkers and hundreds of visitors from all over the country who would pop into the shop wanting a cup of tea and a piece of cake or a sandwich, so opening a café and tearoom next door seemed the natural next step to take.
In the shadow of the picturesque ruins of Binham Priory is our exciting new venture. The Parlour café and tea room is now open and is at the heart of the farm and very much part of the dairy and our herd of cows. William Wales is the fourth generation to farm the 1000 acres which make up Abbey farm Binham. The heart of the farm is the dairy and the farm grows maize, silage and Lucerne for the cows as well as wheat, sugar beet and barley.
Taking 18 months to complete, the cafe is housed in a converted 17th century and Grade ll listed barn that had been largely redundant for several years. We have turned it into a truly spectacular space which contains a considerable amount of stone from the ruins of the priory. We can seat 50 people comfortably inside and intend to have seating outside too. With its big windows, the building brings back the connection to the dairy and the cows; you can enjoy looking at them whilst enjoying your breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea.
Open six days a week (closed Mondays) from 9am to 4pm, we offer everything from full English and vegetarian breakfasts to light lunches, sausage rolls, salads and sandwiches, cheese boards, charcuterie platters and a mouthwatering range of cakes, pastries and scones, nearly all of which is made on-site with local produce.
As you might expect The Parlour does use milk from the from the farms cows, although it is required to be pasteurised. Happily the Raw version is still available in The Little Dairy Shop.