If you feel that real farmhouse cider can only be made on a farm, by a farmer, then Hartland Cider is for you. This small family operation is based in North Gloucestershire was started by local farmer Ray Hartland at Flat Farm on the outskirts of Staunton. When the council refused to transfer the tenancy to Ray's son Dereck, the family moved their farming and cider making to nearby Tirley Villa farm.

Ray died in January 1996 at the age of 72, and the business is now run by his sons Dereck and David. There is an excellent article and obituary for Ray Hartland here.

Hartland Cider is available in sweet, dry, and a medium that is a blend of the two; and there is also a dry perry, all of about 6% ABV. One of Hartlands' ciders won an award at the Big Apple Cider Trials at Putley in 1994, while the perry has triumphed at the GBBF in 1989 and the Norwich Beer Festival in 1994. The perry is a superb drink; rich and tasty and far from being as innocuous as it appears.

Hartland Cider produce 5-6,000 gallons of cider a year, and press the fruit of several customers who then ferment the juice themselves. These range from a West Berkshire beer writer, who goes away with 25 gallons in polypins, to a local brew-pub which produces a thousand gallons of cider a year from its own orchard.

Dereck and David Hartland

Tirley Villa, Tirley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire GL19 4HA

• Farm Shop also selling jams and chutneys, ducks' eggs and other farm produce

Directions by road: Tirley is a village almost on the River Severn, south-west of Tewkesbury and north of Gloucester. Tirley Villa is west of Tirley, and stands on its own just south of the B4213. Look for the sign by the hedge alongside the main road. The house and cider barns are about 100 yards off the main road.

Dave Hartland decanting cider into containers

Dave Hartland with cider accidionado Paul Gunningham, sampling the goods!