Our Story
The story of Marshfield Ice Cream is one of passion, hard work and the freshest farm ingredients.
Will’s parents first came to the Marshfield Farm in 1971. Times were hard, but they were young and enthusiastic. Dad would milk their small dairy herd of 50 Friesian cows out in the field, in a mobile parlour. On cold mornings it would take him hours just to defrost the pipes!
But by the time Will came home from college in the mid 1980s, the farm was pretty well established. Will needed something to do and his Dad needed him occupied! By now, the herd had doubled in size and there was plenty of milk about. All this gave Will an idea.
Will had always been mad about ice cream. He even ran his own business at school, selling ice cream to his friends. So why not combine his two life-long passions – farming and ice cream? How hard could it be?
It didn't start too well.
The first problem was that Will had no money. The second was that he hadn’t the first idea about food preparation, let alone ice cream making! But with help from his Mum, a few books and a health and hygiene course, production got underway at the impressive rate of 8 litres per hour.
21 years have passed since then. We now produce over 1,500 litres of ice cream per hour, in 25 delicious flavours. The herd has grown to 200 cows. Will and his Dad organically farm nearly 1,000 acres of land. From our modest beginnings in a disused dairy, more than 20 staff now help keep it all going. And Will’s Mum has been allowed to retire!