Farm shop opens in Ipswich

The Partridge family started farming in Lower Layham more than 100 years ago with founder Charles Joshua Partridge, great grandfather to the current owner Charles Partridge.

Now, four generations on the family is still farming the same land. In 1935 the trading name Partridge and Cundy was established when Thomas Partridge joined with Gerald Cundy and started growing soft fruit and vegetables. At that stage they sold crops to local markets, Convent Garden and to their own shops in Ipswich and Felixstowe.

Faced with competition from high street supermarkets and dwindling demand for produce from small producers, the company closed its shops in the 1970s but continued to sell into local markets.

It wasn't until 1992 that they started retailing again by selling cherries from their 300-year-old orchards at the farm gates. Next came a small shop in their old Suffolk barn and then in June 2000 they moved into Hadleigh high street.

Three years later the shop transferred to larger premises to accommodate more locally grown produce and now, just four years on, they have moved back into Ipswich.

With just 100 acres, their farm is not large but is proud of its heritage and continued adherence to high environmental standards having signed up to the higher level Countryside Stewardship Scheme with Natural England.

Popular demand means their shops do stock Items not grown in the UK, such as oranges, lemons and bananas but all other produce is taken first from their own farms, then from other local farms and others in Suffolk. After that they give preference to produce from East Anglia, then England, the UK and finally from abroad if there is demand for out-of-season produce.

In this way the company cuts all unnecessary food miles proud that produce cut each morning can be in people's homes the same day.