Cheshire's 'poshest farm shop' opens new store on 'glamorous' village high street

It's known as Cheshire's "poshest" farm shop, and now The Hollies has launched a new venture on one of the county's most glamorous high streets.

Hollies Farm on The High Street has just opened in a pretty Georgian townhouse building in the middle of Tarporley, the village named one of the best places to live in the UK by The Sunday Times last year.

The Cheshire village is known for its wealth of boutiques and a bustling high street which was hailed by the national newspaper as: "both glamorous and practical" due to its range of shops.

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Now it can add one of the most famous farm shops to its roster with the arrival of The Hollies. The family-run business has converted the former hotel and bar into a new boutique-style version of its famous original farm shop based in nearby Little Budworth.

It becomes the third shop in the burgeoning empire, with its second over in Lower Stretton near Warrington.

The Hollies is thought to be the oldest-established farm shop in Cheshire having first started out in the 1950s as a fresh fruit and vegetables road-side stall with an honesty box.

Under the stewardship of the Cowap family, it has been extended to a sprawling site featuring a whole host of barn shop buildings as well as a large indoor cafe area with outside seating too.

It has become "insta-famous" in recent years thanks to Love Island star Molly-Mae Hague enthusing about it on her social media. Fellow influencer Hollie Elizabeth hit the headlines when she blamed the "Molly-Mae effect" for huge queues around the car park just to get in the shop on weekends that she said are making it "like Alton Towers".

Now the new high street shop takes many of the best bits of its original site, combined with a new cafe space with both both indoor and outdoor terrace seating. It also has hotel rooms to stay above.

The shop opened this week, with a sit-in cafe as well as a cute coffee hatch for takeaway treats on the outside of the building.

Bosses have announced that while they're just getting bedded in there's only cakes and coffees available in the cafe. But it is hoped to extend the range in due course.

Inside there's two rooms filled with gifts, treats and ladies' fashions, while there's also a large main room where there's a curated selection of farm shop staples. That includes fresh meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables as well as frozen Cook at home dishes.

The main farm shop boasts a huge range of local, artisan produce from 75 different local farm suppliers, as well as an in-house butchers, delicatessen counter and fresh cream cakes too.

Owners of the farm shop are also happy to laugh at themselves a little too. It's known locally as "The £50 farm shop" because you can't go in without seemingly coming out with at least a £50 basket of goodies such is the treasure trove.

And for April Fools Day this year, they even pretended they were getting a documentary made about them - which would star their most famous customer of course, Molly-Mae.

The Cowap family announced the news of the new shop after a series of teaser clips on social media about what they were up to at the distinctive buildig in Tarporley. When it was officially confirmed they said: "Hollies Farm on the High St. will be a smaller, curated offering of your favourite products from our Farm Shop and Gifting."

The new shop in Tarporley is open Mondays 8am to 6pm, Wednesday to Saturday 8am to 6pm and Sundays 8am to 5pm and closed Tuesdays.