B. H. Savidge and Son was founded in 1919 when George Savidge moved from a tenanted farm at Newent to buy Rock Farm in the village of Lea. A year later Basil Howard Savidge was born at Rock Farm and 34 years later was farming Rock Farm on his own, a mixed farm with cattle and sheep. In 1964 he added Woodfields a fruit farm and began growing dessert apples and pears. Now the family partnership are farming both Rock Farm and Woodfields, third generation Savidge.
We pride ourselves on being a family run farming operation, above is a picture of Basil and Mark, proud winners of the Corbett Windsor Cup in 1974.
Rock farm is the home of the potato and arable operations. About 250 hectares of potatoes are grown each year for processing crisps, chips and seed production. They are all lifted from July to October, passed over a grader and put into store in 1 tonne box’s. Over 600 hectars of cereals, pulses, oil seed rape and herbage grass seeds are also grown.
Raspberries were planted in 1997 with just 2 acres. They were grown without Tunnels and the season was short, just two months, June and July. Since then we have increased to 20 hectares which are all grown under Glasshouse and Tunnels, this gives an extended season and we can pick from May until the first frosts in late November. Tunnels also allow us the ability to reduce the plant protection products used on the crop by as much as 95% and gives us a consistent quality.
10 hectares of dessert apples are grown, Braeburn and Gala are the main varieties. These are all grown for the supermarkets and sent off the farm to a Co-operative packhouse for packing. The work on the farm is Winter Pruning, thinning in the Summer months and picking during the Autumn; all these tasks are carried out by hand.
We have several accreditations including Leaf, Red Tractor and Tesco Nuture. We are audited annually to ensure we continue to provide top quality produce to our customers.
