A HUGELY popular Northumberland ice cream parlour has officially been put on the market.
Wheelbirks Estate, located just outside Stocksfield, is being listed with a guide price of £6.75m.
The business includes the ice cream café, orchard garden, children’s play area, commercial kitchen and several retail spaces, all set within the historic working farm.
It extends to around 386 acres of mixed farmland, woodland, residential properties and commercial buildings. Its centrepiece is the award‑winning Wheelbirks Ice Cream Parlour, a popular visitor attraction established in 2010 within converted traditional stone buildings.
The move follows a 'bittersweet' statement issued by owners Tom and Hugh Richardson on January 30, confirming that this will be the family’s final year farming the land.
Owned by five generations of the Richardson family since 1882, the estate includes a wide range of residential accommodation – including a seven‑bedroom principal farmhouse, East Cottage, West Cottage and three further let cottages – as well as a substantial collection of traditional and modern agricultural buildings.
The estate has been brought to market as the family begins a planned step back from day‑to‑day operations after many decades at the helm.
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Tom Richardson said: “Wheelbirks has been at the heart of our family for generations, and it has been a privilege to grow the estate and the parlour into the much‑loved destination it is today. We have enormously valued the support of our local community over the years and hope the next custodians will enjoy it as much as we have.”
Andrew Black, director in the Yorkshire Farm Agency team at Savills, which is handling the sale, said: "Wheelbirks is an exceptional example of a long‑established family enterprise that has successfully diversified while retaining its heritage.
"Opportunities of this scale, combining productive farmland, high‑quality residential accommodation and a well‑known commercial operation such as the Wheelbirks Ice Cream Parlour, are incredibly rare in the Tyne Valley.
“The estate presents buyers with huge scope – whether to continue the much‑loved parlour and visitor destination, expand the commercial elements, or simply enjoy a unique and beautifully situated rural holding.”
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