Brendon Hill Crafts

Brendon Hill Crafts has been making preserves for more than thirty years, starting out as a cottage industry on the eastern edge of Exmoor under Liz and David Jessup. What began as fudge, truffles and home-made jam gradually became preserves full-time. When Liz and David reached retirement, Ruth and Derek took over rather than let the business fold, and more recently Richard and Lucinda have taken it on in turn - a family handover rather than a sale to a bigger name.

The kitchen, on the edge of Barnstaple, is purpose-built but still run on a small-batch basis: pans that produce 20-25 jars at a time, hand-filled and hand-labelled one by one. The range covers jams, marmalades, chutneys, savoury jellies, fruit sauces and fruit vinegars, several of which have picked up awards over the years. Deliveries go out personally across Exmoor, West Somerset and North Devon, with occasional runs further afield for regular customers.