Welcome to the Pie Pad

Beautiful North Norfolk

We couldn't be prouder of being in one of the most glorious spots overlooking the sea above Cley and Blakeney in North Norfolk. We make the finest pork pies in a beautiful converted flint hay barn, which has beams, a red tiled roof and a sheltered walled garden courtyard. The flint-walled office leads into the bakery (with its old bread oven), which leads in to the pie makery, so we all move between tasks as the day demands. We relish using local seasonal ingredients, foraging for wild garlic in spring and sourcing apples from the Sandringham Estate, further along the coast, in autumn. Windowsills and desks in the office often have posies of flowers found on lunchtime walks along the network of paths around the woods, and beside the chalk streams and farmland of the estate.


Bayfield water meadows in North Norfolk, home of Brays Cottage Pork Pies

Bayfield Brecks

HQ is at the top of a hill (yes Norfolk has some) on the Bayfield Estate, in what was the old farm, converted in 2007 and a winner of CPRE awards.  Barn owls and marsh harriers hunt around the meadows and the swallows return every summer, making it a such a joy to be there.

Each of the cluster of barns house one or more different businesses, from a small brewery, a chutney maker and, when we moved out of our previous premises to our current larger ones, the Norfolk Rivers Trust moved into our office, complete with a tank of eels!

We don't have a shop as such, but if you give us a call and a little notice (or use the online shop) we can usually help. Or we have very local stockists such as Picnic Fayre in Cley and Back To The Garden in Letheringsett.

Sarah Pettegree, Pie Queen and founder of Brays Cottage Pork Pies

The Pork Pie team

Bray's Cottage was founded in 2007 by Sarah, who was ready to leave the corporate world behind and spend her working day in the countryside, where she lives, rather than sitting in someone else's office. She taught the small team, from the surrounding villages, to make the pies by hand. Being well known locally, new team members are generally found by word of mouth, or sometimes a tap on the door or a chat at a market can lead to new friends joining for a spell. What's also nice is that many of our team members who have gone on to other things, including moving to Iceland (the place not the shop), opening a craft bakery and working for Fortnum's, still remain good friends and pop in to say hello.

The Brays Cottage Pork Pie team in the fields of North Norfolk

Pork pies in the news

You can read more in this Guardian piece and this one too.

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We're pretty sure that all these things help make the pies a little bit magic.