In August 2009, a group of Tideswell villagers submitted a bold and elaborate plan to the Big Lottery Fund’s Village SOS scheme to make Tideswell known as a foodie destination. That plan became Taste Tideswell and since winning through to the final six villages who each received £400,000 from BIG, we have been beavering away bringing our plans to fruition. I have had the privilege of being chairman of Taste Tideswell and have been honoured to work with a tremendous team of people – all who have made the project the success it is.

On December 6, 2010 we opened the Tideswell School of Food, which offers full-priced cookery courses to a national audience as well as subsidised  courses to the local community. Our education team is doing sterling work with local schools and we have employed six local people to work in school.

The BBC have produced a short preview film explaining more about the project and you can watch the hour-long BBC series on 7 September on BBC1 at 8pm.