A LITTLE BIT ABOUT US

Wensleydale Ice Cream is based at Hardbanks Barn, Thornton Rust, in the heart of Wensleydale, and is owned and run by Gill and Adrian Harrison.

The multi award winning jersey herd, Hillside Jerseys, produce the milk for the delicious ice cream, and Adrian has achieved the great accolade of being twice voted Yorkshire Herdsman of the Year.

Wensleydale Ice Cream is as good as it is, due to quality of the milk used and we believe the production of the ice cream speaks for itself.

The History

The Harrison family are well and truly rooted in the Yorkshire Dales. For several hundred years the family have been farming in the Dales and, as a result of Adrian’s grandfather’s dream to provide each of his three sons with a farm, Adrian’s father Maurice, moved from the family farm in Coverdale to Manor Farm, Thornton Rust in the 1960’s and the Harrison family have farmed there since.

Gill is also from a farming background.  A Weatherald before her marriage to Adrian in 1999, Gill’s grandfather Harry, was the first farmer in Wensleydale to introduce ‘Black and White’ dairy cows to the dale where, up to that point, all farms were milking shorthorns.

Foot and Mouth and the devastation that surrounded it brought dramatic changes to the Harrisons farming circumstances. Having lost their whole milking herd due to the cull, Adrian, understanding the need to introduce a positive element into the aftermath, became the first famer in the dale to introduce Jersey cows.

The Beginning

The volatility of dairy farming throughout the last years, led Adrian and Gill to the conclusion that they needed to diversify their business in order to survive.

Initially Gill used her background in business to successfully run a mail order gift company, bringing her office and store to the redeveloped Old Calf House on Manor Farm.  However, with the market for milk not adequately supporting the investment needed to produce it, Adrian and Gill realised that they needed to do something else to survive.

Using existing space in the Old Calf House, Gill’s business expertise and Adrian’s farming experience, they carefully planned their new joint venture.  Sharing the office space with Gill’s existing business and converting the store room to a production room their idea’s reached fruition and, in August 2012, Wensleydale Ice Cream was born.

In September 2019, following a barn conversion the new Ice Cream Parlour and Coffee shop was opened.