Bidlea Dairy draws visitors beside a neighbouring mini zoo
Bidlea Dairy is located near Holmes Chapel, a few miles from Jodrell Bank, with views across the South Cheshire countryside towards the Lovell Telescope. The farm includes an indoor café and outdoor seating, serving ice cream alongside savoury food, home-made cakes and hot and cold drinks.
Its daily selection includes 24 flavours from a wider list of 80. Options include Jaffa Cake, bubblegum, birthday cake and blue raspberry, as well as raspberry and mint chocolate chip. The dairy has received Great Taste awards for flavours including Gold Top, honeycomb and vanilla.
A single scoop in a cone or tub costs from £3.30, while two scoops cost £4.30 and three cost £5.30. Customers can combine one or two flavours in a milkshake with whipped cream for £6.25. The farm is open daily until 7pm and has vending machines supplying milk and ice cream around the clock.
The ice-cream business grew out of changes at the Brown family’s dairy farm. Ray and Jill Brown, their sons Adam and Ryan, and their sons’ wives, both named Becky, began processing and pasteurising their own milk after supermarkets reduced the price paid for cow’s milk to 16p a litre. Milk from the family’s free-range pedigree cows is pumped to an adjoining dairy, where it is processed before being supplied to local farm shops and wholesalers.
Demand for fresh milk increased during the March 2020 lockdown, and Bidlea worked with local delivery services to supply customers across Cheshire. The family later bought ice-cream equipment, tested flavours and launched the product in 2021. Visitors then began arriving through word of mouth and social media.
Holmes Chapel Zoo opened in a field beside the farm just over a year ago. Its outdoor enclosures contain meerkats, tortoises, skunks, owls, deer and wallabies. The zoo holds talks during the day and gives children opportunities to handle selected animals, including lizards, guinea pigs and snakes. Adult admission is £8.50, while children and concessionary visitors pay £6; children under two enter free. An advance family ticket for two adults and up to three children costs £26 when booked at least 36 hours before a visit.
The zoo also has a play area made with recycled tyres, an activity tent and a gift shop. The ice-cream farm is open from 9am to 5pm daily on Twemlow Lane, around a five-minute drive from Junction 18 of the M6. The zoo operates from 10am to 3pm at weekends and from 11am to 3pm on weekdays. Goostrey station, on the line between Manchester Piccadilly and Crewe, is about a one-mile walk away.
