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 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.
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.
We're pretty sure that all these things help make the pies a little bit magic.
The next stage in our story
Good times! What can I say? It's all terrifically fast paced in the pie world, as it turns out. So apologies for the emotional roller coaster.
The excellent new news is that, after Derek and I announced our retirement, I saw a message pop up on my phone...
Sarah, from Essence Foods, asked if they could come and have a chat at HQ. And, to cut to the chase, Essence are buying the business and will be taking it from strength to strength. We could not be happier. They are the perfect people to pick up the Bray's Cottage baton and run with it. So, the upshot is that nothing is changing. Derek and I are still retiring, but everything else remains the same. The same beautiful flint barn overlooking the sea, with the same team skilfully making the pies to the exact same recipe, baked slowly in the same big oven.
