UP CLOSE: Martin and Eleanor Thatcher, fourth and fifth generation cider-makers at Sandford firm

Cheddar Nub News aims to be supportive to every element of the area's community from business and shops to people and charities, clubs and sports organisations.

We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'Up Close in Cheddar'.

Thatchers Cider in Sandford have been busy with the annual apple harvest, and the business recently celebrated this through a partnership with British Food Fortnight.

In a spare moment, we caught up with father and daughter cider-makers Martin and Eleanor Thatcher to find out what it is like to be continuing a long family tradition in running the firm, and what the Covid lockdowns meant for the business.

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The Thatcher family is incredibly well known in the area, but what does this area mean to you? How important is Myrtle Farm to the whole Thatchers cider business?

Martin: Incredibly important – it's the beating heart of the business. My Great Grandfather William started making cider at Myrtle Farm in 1904; my parents John and Ann live in the original farmhouse, and I live close by too. I was brought up at Myrtle Farm, I've lived here all my life, our children Eleanor and Peter were born here, so there is naturally such a strong connection between Somerset and our cider making. I can't imagine us being anywhere else.

Tell us a bit about your personal business background Martin and Eleanor - how does it feel to be continuing the family business over four and five generations?

Eleanor: It's amazing to be able to work with my family in this lovely part of Somerset, doing something we all love.

Martin: It's a real privilege to be carrying on in the footsteps of my Great Grandfather, Grandfather and Father. But that privilege also has huge responsibility! We're a family business through and through. I started working with my Dad straight from school, and while at the beginning I thought I may go into dairy farming, I soon realised that it was cider-making where my future lay. My Dad has always been my biggest inspiration. One of my first – and looking back most influential – studies I undertook early in my business life was with the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust. What I learned from my studies really help set Thatchers Cider on the path we have been following ever since, ensuring that everything we do is of the absolute highest standard.

Being a family company has so many advantages, and really helps us focus on the things we truly believe in. Many people are pleasantly surprised when they realise we really are still making cider in the very same place my Great Grandfather did. And that we're still a family owned, independent and British business. This is the reality we are so very proud of.

What do you like about the area? How are you involved in the local community?

Martin: It's my home, so of course I'm biased. And of course it's the best place in the world to grow apples for cider! I love walking, and whether to the coast, or up onto the Mendips, there's plenty of places to enjoy peace and quiet, walk the dog, and of course soak in the amazing landscapes.

A few years ago as a family we set up the Thatchers Foundation, and we've been honoured to get to meet so many inspirational organisations and charitable groups working within their communities in Somerset. I think Weston Hospicecare do an amazing job, and I like to support their work whenever I can. I'm a trustee of the Royal Bath and West Society, what a fantastic resource we have on our doorsteps that really puts our area on the map when it comes to farming and agriculture.

Eleanor: I really love the landscape in this part of Somerset. I'm a keen hockey player for my local club, and I'm also the chair of my Young Farmers club.

The coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on many businesses and organisations - what are your plans?

Martin and Eleanor: It's been a challenging time for everyone, for individuals, families and businesses. As soon as lockdown hit, at Thatchers we put our thoughts to how we could best keep everyone safe, and assist people in our local communities – so we got to work delivering home school meals, delivering prescriptions to housebound neighbours, for example. Our friends and customers in hospitality were very hard hit, so helping them where we could was a priority. But with business slowly returning to normality, our focus is firmly back to business and carrying on as we were back in spring 2020. That includes innovating with new ciders, planting new orchards, and continually looking at initiatives to cut carbon and keep making and packaging our ciders sustainably. It's about being resilient and keeping going!

What businesses do you like and use in the local area?

Eleanor: There are so many local businesses that I use and love, I'd take the whole page to list them all!

Martin: As a business wherever we can we like to work with local businesses. Of course we have many apple growers here in Somerset; we buy our cars locally, we use a local haulage company, for example, we buy spare parts locally, and of course it wouldn't be right if we didn't visit our local pubs and restaurants in the area to sample the local produce!

I'm a keen sports fan, so whenever I can I go to watch rugby at Bath and Bristol, and cricket in Taunton. My playing days are well past, but it is definitely how I like to enjoy down-time.

The lockdown was very difficult for many people - how do you think that this area coped?

Eleanor: yes, lockdown was very difficult. But I think that as a community we really pulled together in many ways to support those in need.

Martin: We're in a very close community, so that has helped to pull people through. We made it a priority to support our neighbours in Sandford and Winscombe during lockdown as did other groups too, it was heart warming to see everyone pull together.

We were very fortunate in this area that Covid didn't hit as hard as it did in some other areas of the country.

If there was one thing you would change locally, what would it be?

Martin: I would love to plant more apple trees. If you look back at the old maps every farm in the area used to grow apples, and it is something we want to encourage. Earlier this year we introduced a scheme to donate apple trees to groups planting community orchards, and we'll be doing the same next year too.

Sandford and the area around it is beautiful - what is your favourite place and why?

Martin: My favourite place is on the top of Sandford Hill – on one side you can see the village of Sandford, out to Honey Hall, and across to Weston-super-Mare, and on the other side across to the Mendips.

Eleanor: When the blossom is out, the orchards are definitely my favourite place to go.

If you could choose an actor to play you in a movie about your life, who would it be and why?

Martin: I'd love Daniel Craig to play out what I would like to have done… car chases, motor bikes...

Eleanor: I'd choose Amanda Seyfried – she was awesome in Mamma Mia.

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You can check out the Thatchers website here.

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See our other UP CLOSE profiles:

Keith Cook, president of Cheddar Vale Lions Club

James Simpson, managing director of the FSC group in Cheddar

Jem Ham, founder and managing director of Cheddar Ales

Doreen Smith, operations director of Cheddar charity The Space

Don Bishop, of Don Bishop Photography in Cheddar

Would you like to be the subject of an UP CLOSE profile or do you know someone who we should feature? Contact [email protected].