Tom has been making cider since 2017 and the cider house is essentially, a retirement project. A former stonemason, carpenter and builder for 30 years, Tom has self-built a very impressive and cosy cider house on the family farm, the latter now converted to industrial usage.

The naming of the product, Hedger’s, is derived from the fact that Tom has been traditional hedge layer since the age of 16.

The mighty press was bought at auction and is thought to have been used by Coate’s Cider. It can take 1.5 tonnes of macerated apples in a single load and squashes the pulp at 3000 pounds (1.3 tons) per square inch, resulting in 800 litres of juice per pressing. Fermentation starts naturally, but quite soon a commercial yeast is added to ensure consistency from year to year; a wise precaution since, as some of us other commercial cider-makers can attest, some “interesting” flavours and aromas can develop in some years if a spontaneous fermentation is relied upon. The current production level is at 5000 gallons per year, but the plan is to at least double this. In 2017, Tom planted an orchard directly outside the cider house, containing more than forty varieties of apples, some quite rare. This orchard, being quite young, does not yet supply all of his requirements so other orchards are used in the Cheddar, Wookey and Abbots Leigh areas.