Cedar Barn Farm Shop
Chuffing
away merrily
at Cedar Barn
Chris Berry talks with farmer-turned
engine driver Karl Avison near Pickering
» » WHEN THE FARM SHOP
you’ve developed has been in
the news for winning awards;
when your homebred beef is
respected by your customers;
and when people see you
driving a narrow gauge train
with a smile on your face, there
is a tendency for others to
think you’ve done well, have
little stress and that life has
dealt you a fair hand.
Karl Avison isn’t going
to tell anyone that he’s not
enjoying life at present, but
he also knows what he and
his wife Mandy have built
in the past 10 years did not
come about without a great
deal of effort that needs to
be constantly maintained.
He now has a share-farming
arrangement with a neighbour
and concentrates more fully on
their burgeoning business with
the public.
Cedar Barn Farm Shop, Café
and now miniature railway – on
the Scarborough road just out
of Pickering - has become a
destination venue for thousands
of visitors every year. The family
farm that Karl ran with his father,
Colin is just four miles away at
Top Bridge Farm, High Marishes.
Its overall acreage runs to 150
acres with 27 acres where Cedar
Barn is today. The success of the
farm shop enterprise has brought
about several changes to his and
Mandy’s lives.
‘Prior to opening
the shop I’d
been selling our
beef locally and
the shop idea
seemed a natural
progression’
24 Autumn 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
‘I’m enjoying farming more
now than 10 years ago and
I hope I’ve become a better
businessman. I wasn’t bored
with farming but I wanted
to move things on and the
size of farm we have meant
that we couldn’t make a
living out of it. The farm just
wasn’t making enough. We
had cattle, sheep and arable
land but it needed something
else.
‘Prior to opening the shop I’d
been selling our beef locally and
the shop idea seemed a natural
progression; but there was a
time in the early years when our
accountant told us to sell up the
shop as it wasn’t supporting our
loan repayments and so wasn’t
making any money.’
The solution was found
through changing accountants
and acquiring greater business
acumen.