Desborough farm park attraction West Lodge Rural Centre submits plans for new restaurant and farm shop

If plans are approved, the family-run farm park near Desborough would replace an existing barn with a new two-storey restaurant and farm shop.

Owned and managed by the Dee family, the 540-acre site is also home to the West Lodge Day Nursery and Pre-School, a garden centre and plant nursery, Targetcraft archery centre and Desborough Cricket Club.

Visitors to the farm’s bistro spurred on the West Lodge team to put in the plans for their next venture.

Ryan Thompson, director at West Lodge Rural Centre, said: “A few years ago we invested in our restaurant extension, a new large professional kitchen, a butchery and deli counter.

“Since then we have built a very talented team of chefs, led by Ed Jackson who has worked at Michelin starred restaurants.

"On the farm Ed Dee and myself have concentrated on rearing livestock in a wildlife friendly and sustainable way.

"We have always been ahead of the curve with sustainability and conservation on the farm, and what we have been doing now has a new name 'Regenerative Farming' a term more familiar now since the success of Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm.”

West Lodge produced meat and sausages have received a professional nod with caterer Smoke & Braai giving them rave reviews, serving them up at celebrity parties and even Boris Johnson’s most recent wedding.

Ryan said: “It's our visitors that have driven this next exciting step at West Lodge with an application going in for a farm shop and bistro cafe.

“They have emailed in huge numbers, over the last two years, with comments of being surprised by the quality and standard of the food at a family tourist attraction and expressing the wish that they could come and eat with us without coming into the farm park.

“In the meantime our small farm shop and deli counter is growing and continues to have home-reared meats, sausages, home-baked pies and eggs, milk, preserves and lots more available.”

The proposal involves demolishing an ‘under-utilised’ agricultural storage barn and replacing it with a new barn that will house a restaurant.

Extending the architectural style of the development completed in 2016, the new building will offer a ‘contemporary yet functional interpretation of the barn typology’.

The current access to the farm park will remain unchanged and the new facility will be a standalone attraction, separate from the farm park and its associated entry fee.

Designs for the new building incorporates insect habitats in the form of bug ‘hotels’ made from natural materials such as clay, wood, bamboo and pine cones.

Plans for the replacement portal frame barn to provide a new restaurant and farm shop can be viewed at https://www.kettering.gov.uk/planningApplication/134374.

Search using application number NK/2025/0029.

Opened in 1995, West Lodge Rural Centre offers a family farm tourist destination focused around farming.

Visitors can handle the rabbits and guinea pigs in cuddle corner, take a pony ride, watch the very popular piglet race or play in the adventure playground. There is a range of walks and nature trails around the farm.