Brendon Hill Crafts is now in new ownership.
Lucinda and Richard Howe will be updating the website very soon.
Ruth & Derek would like to say a huge thank you to all their customers for their support over the last 17 years, and wish Lucinda, Richard and family every success for the future.
Since 1984
36 years of preserve making by the same family!
Still hand-made in small batches, hand-filled, hand-labelled and personally delivered to our customers!
Visit us at one of the shows to see the full range.
Brendon Hill Crafts was founded 36 years ago, by Liz & David Jessup, as a cottage industry on the eastern edge of Exmoor, and close to the iron ore mine which we use as a logo on our labels. The business originally produced fudge, truffles and home-made preserves, although gradually the preserves took over full time. When Liz & David Jessup reached retirement age, we took a decision not to let the successful business disappear, and gave up our jobs to continue the family operation.
Over the last 15 years, we have enjoyed a great deal of support from new and existing customers, and the business has flourished. We now operate from a purpose-designed kitchen on the edge of Barnstaple, cooking in small pans that produce 20-25 jars at a time. Jars are hand-filled, hand-labelled, and personally delivered to our customers over the whole of the Exmoor, West Somerset and North Devon area, as well as further afield occasionally. We supply a variety of farm shops, village stores, delis and tourist attractions, as well as tea rooms, hotels and B&Bs, who use our products.
We attend a variety of shows and events throughout the year – see “Events” to find our next outing.
A fuller history of Brendon Hill Crafts was published in the Exmoor Review and can be read here.
Customer Praise
Greetings, and I abase myself before your excellence. I’ve been given a jar of your whortleberry jam. I’ve not enjoyed a taste like that since I was a child in the early 50s when I used to accompany my grandmother, and the other women of Porlock, whort picking for, I believe, 3d a quart. I learnt (over several years) to “comb” the bushes efficiently, as baskets containing leaves were always rejected. The high point of this annual event was always the communal tea with fresh bread, (scones were considered a “furren” affectation), local clotted cream and the previous year’s whort jam.
Food of the gods! …and yours is just as good.
Thanks for so poignantly evoking such precious memories, and don’t you dare stop making it!
Peter Smith