The Forster family are now in their fifth generation on the farm
22:36, 16 Jan 2025Updated 06:16, 17 Jan 2025
Forster’s Farm Shop on Shoots Delph Farm, St Helens(Image: Photo by Iain Watts)
A family-run farm shop on Merseyside sees customers travel miles to visit every week. Located in Moss Bank Road in St. Helens, around a 40 minute drive from Liverpool city centre, the Forster family has for decades called Shoots Delph Farm home.
Now in their fifth generation, it was around 25 years ago that the family decided to showcase the organic beef and lamb they have long produced and open their own farm shop on site. Welcoming customers from across the north west, Forster’s Farm Shop has continued to grow through the years, from expanding the items they offer to going on to sell at another site, Haigh Woodland Park in Wigan.
Today, husband-and-wife Chris and Anne Forster, their son, former rugby league player Jack Forster, daughter-in-law Danni and their three children remain at the heart of the business. It’s a sunny weekday afternoon and as we pull up at Shoots Delph Farm, we’re surrounded by acres of field and bays of hay stacked high.
Inside Forster’s Farm Shop is bustling with customers, all browsing the shelves and waiting their turn at the meat counter. Within minutes of entering through the door, many are filling their baskets up to the top with a variety of other items, from sour dough or spelt and honey loaves to pork and apple sausages, Chinese salt and pepper chicken wings, jars of chutney and more.
Inside the farm shop, Anne Forster, 65, told the ECHO: “The family took on the farm in the 1940s, right around the war time. The main business from here was cattle, what you would say dealing and the war and providing cattle for that.
Four generations of the Forster family – Jack, John, Chris and Jack Forster as a boy – on display in the farm shop(Image: Photo by Iain Watts)
“Chris’s granddad and his dad would go all around the country procuring cattle. Then they’d come on the trains, they’d walk them as a gang up the back up Moss Bank from Moss Bank Station into the farm.
“For a long time, it was a core business in terms of buying cattle and just rearing, getting them fat and then selling them in all auctions and markets. But when BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) came, that was a big change for us overnight.
“It was Chris’s dad that decided, right, well we’ll try and sell from the farm, so he went round literally in his van selling half a lamb in the pack. And that’s led to the start of this now – the farm shop started in a little room and then luckily we had this building to move into.”
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Back in 2000, Shoots Delph Farm decided to go completely organic and soon opened their farm shop on site. Anne said: “We did some farmer’s markets in Liverpool at Lark Lane and Woolton.
“Then we started one day here, we just wheeled the counter in to display and then we had to wheel it back out the next day because then we needed that as a prep room. So in some ways, you forget how far it’s come really.
“Just gradually and gradually the shop has taken over and we’ve got busier and busier and got more staff.” Today, Anne said while they still specialise in organic beef and lamb, they also offer the likes of homemade sausage, cured bacon, burgers, delicious baked items and more.
Family owners Jack Forster and his mum, Anne(Image: Photo by Iain Watts)
She said generations of customers have been coming to them for years and over time have become more like friends of the family. Anne said: “A lot of our customers now, they’ve been coming since we started.
“People travel from all over. A lot come from Liverpool, they come from Bolton, they come from Manchester, even up into Blackpool, they’ll travel over to Southport.
“When you say you come to work, you come to the shop and it’s not really like coming to a job I don’t feel. It’s just you come and you offer them the best quality you possibly can and they seem to enjoy that.”
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The family has seen much change and growth in their business through the years and Anne said a lot of that is down to the hard work and dedication of her son and daughter-in-law, as well as their brilliant staff members. She said: “Jack’s come back and he’s added to the business.
“He’s got a big hay and straw haulage business going from here and we’ve done other things on conservation as there’s lots of wildlife around here. We’ve got other little businesses who have come in with the florist and the dog groomers and we have a dog field that people can hire out.
Forster’s Farm Shop opened around 25 years ago and has continued to grow(Image: Photo by Iain Watts)
“All these are needed to keep the farm viable for Jack and his family really. I don’t think you can in farming sit on what you used to do or what you always do – you’ve always got to be thinking of other things.”
Now over 80 years on from the beginning at the farm, Anne said the family are incredibly proud of their history and how far they have come. Anne said: “The staff look after it and make it nice and I do feel they’re proud of it – and I’m proud of them for it.
“I think people genuinely enjoy coming here. I feel our staff are very welcoming and they’re always helpful with recipes and chatting with customers.
“I just like it that people come in and seem to chat and enjoy the environment and enjoy good food when they come. To have a lovely beef counter and people enjoy what you’re producing, that means a lot to us still.”
Forster’s Farm Shop is open Wednesday to Saturday. To find out more, you can visit the Forster’s Farm Shop website here or visit their Facebook page here.