A 150-year-old kitchen garden has been given a new lease of life at the centre of a rural food enterprise.
 
The walled garden on the Meldon Park estate near Morpeth was in danger of falling into serious disrepair, but will now supply seasonal fruit and vegetables for a new restaurant and shop on the estate, and the development of a unique, local food name. 

The £300,000 project – involving the whole estate community and £115,000 of funding via regional development agency One NorthEast - has seen the Georgian walled garden redesigned to rotate, produce and return seasonal home-grown fruit, vegetables and herbs to help supply the estate’s new restaurant, ‘Comfort at Meldon Park’.

Diners will be able to eat what they can see being picked outside, along with other locally-sourced produce including game and meat from farmers on the estate.

It will also feed into the estate’s ‘Kitchen Garden Shop’ and a future production kitchen, which will spearhead the development of a distinctive local food brand. 

Estate owner James Cookson said: “Ever since I started in the food industry I dreamed of marrying together my knowledge of the food industry and that of agriculture by utilising the fantastic stock and crops being grown and nurtured on the Meldon Estate and working with these excellent farmers and other rural businesses with the aim being to integrate further into the food chain.

“We have Tom and Emily Sillar of Comfort joining us with their excellent reputation from their Newcastle restaurant plus a shop which will be selling a wide selection of British and local food and drink whilst also including other excellent offerings from the North East region, for which there are plenty.”

The project has been funded through the old England Rural Development Programme legacy schemes, administered by the Rural Enterprise Fund and now managed by One NorthEast.

Rural and Environment Manager, Frances Rowe, said: “The North East has between three and five hundred rural estates and so there is huge potential for them to make an important contribution to the North East’s economy.

“Meldon Park was one of the first to get involved in a pilot project to test ways of regenerating those estates. It is looking at the best ways to bring together estate communities, their ideas and information; and to provide business support from the public sector to meet their particular needs.

“The Kitchen Garden at Meldon Park project is a great example of that work in practice – with a commitment to growing, selling and buying locally in the North East, and promoting the unique food and drink that the region has to offer.”

Around 17 local businesses and 21 community groups are set to benefit directly from the project, including local schools which will use the garden as an educational resource to help children understand the journey of their food from ground to plate.

Relevant links

One NorthEast website

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