Spend Lancashire: Light Ash Farm once a disused barn now a family-run business with quality at its core

Based in rural Billsborough, 53-year-old farmer’s daughter Edith Morgan decided in 2012 that after retiring she wasn’t done with the work just get. Using the passion she had for local suppliers and quality goods produced by Lancashire businesses, Edith decided she would develop the disused barn into a farm shop, cafe, and gift outlet to give a boost to her favourite traders.

Now, a decade on, Light Ash farm has built a community of regular consumers and a family of staff – in some cases literally, as Edith Morgan works amongst both of her daughters and granddaughter at the venue.

Joanne Dewhurst, 42, Edith’s second daughter who works with Light Ash Farm spoke to us as part of our Spend Lancashire campaign where we are encouraging our readers to look local this year for any Christmas spending and keep the money within our communities and hardworking families.

Joanne said: “People say you shouldn’t work with your family but we all get on really well. I have even got my nine-year-old daughter Jessica washing up in the kitchen!

"The local community is crucial in keeping our business alive. Not only do we buy locally, but the very local communities Garstang, Billsborough and Barton that's the core of our business. Our regulars, some people come every day and some come every week and that's what keeps us going.

"Back when we first opened we did a ‘Deal Monster, similar to a Wowcher, but with the LEP. We put a deal on for afternoon tea and that took us from no one knowing about us to booking up within a day. It's a really significant part of how our business got to where it is today.”

Known for its cakes, Light Ash Farm says that quality is at the core of everything it does, with Edith’s ethos of using local suppliers not wavering despite the cost-of-living crisis. Joanne said: “I think people should come and try our cakes before they buy from a supermarket or mass-produced. Come and try what we do. It’s more expensive to use the local ingredients we do but the quality is so much better. We are all about quality, all of our produce is bought from local Lancashire producers.

“If people are supporting us, they are supporting the rest of our local businesses. Light Ash Farm is everything my mum wanted to achieve and more. We never thought it could grow and initially we wanted to keep the farm shop as a big part of what we do, but unfortunately the farm shop has gone now, we removed that during COVID to make room for more takeaway cakes. But we still use the support of loads of different local producers for jams, chutneys, meats, and vegetables in our cafe.”

Although no longer a working farm, Light Ash Farm invites you to come and try their cakes and have tea in their cafe, where you can see the horses and cows that they ‘hobby breed’ in the fields just three meters away. You can find the farm on St Michael’s Road Bilsborrow, PR3 0RT Preston, Lancashire.

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