Our early days…

The business has been built upon four generations of farming experience and is run by the Bye family. Dovecote Farm is located on the edge of Newton village near Kettering in Northamptonshire – known as the “The Rose of the English Shires”.

The farm today still grows the traditional crops of wheat, which is sold for bread and biscuit making, and oilseeds, which are used to make healthy culinary oils.

We strongly believe in our role of “custodians of the countryside”. This is why we are members of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Countryside Stewardship Scheme, which has the following aims:

Sustain the beauty and diversity of the landscape
Improve and extend wildlife habitats
Conserve archaeological sites and historic features
Improve opportunities for countryside enjoyment

Our move into retailing and the service industry…

The first retailing venture at Dovecote Farm, started in 1985, was pick your own soft fruit. This has steadily grown over the years to include a greater variety of soft fruits and asparagus. We continue to develop the enterprise to provide a better overall experience for our customers. For example, strawberries are now grown on “table tops” for more convenient picking.
More recently, Dovecote Farm was awarded a prestigious DEFRA Rural Enterprise Grant, after competing with several hundred other small businesses in the East Midlands region. The grant is enabling further expansion of the business, which creates employment for local people.

In 2004 we opened “The Buttery” tea room, initially serving refreshments to our “pick your own” customers. The Buttery proved a great success and encouraged us to add the garden room extension in 2006, which now forms the main restaurant seating area. This is allowing us to broaden our range of services to include full private function hire.

The entrepreneurial talents of proprietors Maxine and Robert Bye, assisted by the loyal Dovecote team and a team of ghostwriter schweiz, ensures that the business will continue to flourish and evolve to meet the needs of its customers now and in the future.

We are developing plans for a new coffee shop, so we invite you to add this website to your browser “Favourites” list and keep visiting for further news and events.

A warm welcome awaits you at Dovecote Farm.