2024: Farm Shop and Deli Show Award Winners
Farm Shop & Deli Show product awards; The Strawberry Conserve GOLD & The Chilli Jam GOLD. Taste of the West 2024 Awards; Blackberry SILVER Award, The Chilli Jam GOLD Award.
Our Family Business
Boddington's has been in business in Mevagissey, Cornwall since 1946.
Our family business has been built on our proud origins as Strawberry Specialists, over four generations of Boddingtons.
We now produce and supply a growing range of the finest Conserves, Chutney and Relishes, to trade customers and direct to consumers.
Below is a timeline that shows all of our big milestones across our 75+ years of being in business.
2024
2023
2023: "Boddington's Preserves"
Preserves side of the business became a limited company trading as Boddington's Preserves. This included new labels, a new product (Chilli Jam) & a new website.
2023 also marked out first Great Taste Star! Which had to be our classic; The Strawberry Conserve. The Chilli Jam also won SILVER in the Great British Food Awards.
2021
2021: The Fourth Generation
Phil's son, Will, returned to the family business as the fourth generation, bringing with him experience from the Mechanical Design Engineering sector. Carrying on the family heritage, he is dedicated to blending tradition with innovation to drive Boddington’s Preserves forward.
2017
2017: The Christmas Range
Christmas range introduced.
2015
2015: The Red Onion Relish
Developed The Red Onion Relish, again due to customer request.
2012
2012: Label Redesign
We refined our label design to better reflect the quality of our preserves. We introduced elegant gold strips at the top and bottom, along with a varnished finish, giving our jars a more premium look and feel.
2011
2011: The Apple Chutney
Creation of The Apple Chutney following a customer request - the first branch out from sweet-based products.
2010
2010: New Labelling Line
Invested in a rotary filling and sealing machine – Sweet Preserves offered in plastic 28g individual portions with a foil lid. In 2010 we also invested in a new labelling line - no more labelling by hand!
2007
2007: Mini Jars
Added individual portion breakfast jars
to the product list and also started cooking Orange Marmalade.
2006
2006: New production equipment
Invested in an electric cooker, moved away from the gas burners and small pans, and started cooking in 35kg batches at a time, rather than 1.5kg! Also bought a ‘depositor’ to help with filling the jars.
2004
2004: Conversion to kitchen
Supermarkets increasingly saw strawberries as a commodity crop. It was becoming too expensive to sell to supermarkets so we reduced growing crop size to only sell locally, and moved the jam production into the packhouse.
2003
2003: Raspberry & Blackberry Conserves
Introduced the Raspberry and Blackberry Conserves.
2002
2003: All things Strawberry
Played with the notion of ‘all things strawberry’, adding mint, cider, mead, and sparkling wine as limited edition versions of the jam via collaborations from other local producers including freeze-drying the fruit and creating a Strawberry Wine and Strawberry Liqueur.
2002
2002: Boddington's Berries
Developed the brand "Boddingtons Berries" with new logo and first label designs and Kilner jars were introduced.
2001
2001: The Strawberry Conserve
Louise Boddington made a batch of 340g Strawberry Conserve jars in the farmhouse. Mrs Boddington was on the way to display these in the pick-your-own shop that we had at the time. She had barely covered 100 yards before all the Strawberry Conserve had been sold to pick your own customers in the car park, never making it to the shop. This was the moment Boddington’s diversified into jams and our picking supervisor, Jeff, became the chef (fitting as his initials are ‘J.A.M’!).
2000
2000: The Strawberry Conserve
Phil and his wife Louise took over the ownership of the business and began selling strawberries direct into stores with our own label.
1990
1990: The Third Generation
Richard’s son Phil returned to the business following horticulture training and extensive travel and experience gained in America, Australia, and the UK. Over the next decade, the farm produced over 200 tons of fruit a year, and was the biggest
fruit grower in Cornwall.
1980
1980: Supplying the Supermarkets
Richard began to
expand the growing area and started to supply the supermarkets.
1970
1970: The Strawberry Specialists
Began to specialise in strawberries through the 70s and 80s, growing fruit for local markets and running a thriving pick-your-own (PYO) enterprise.
1965
1965: The Second Generation
William's son Richard joined the partnership, growing tomatoes, Chrysanthemums and strawberries.
1946
1946: The Beginnings
It all began when William Boddington opened a market garden in fields above Mevagissey, just after the Second World War, growing fruit, vegetables, and flowers. William was from a farming background in Oxfordshire, he had arrived in the village some years before as a sea cadet at the age of 16, married a local girl and stayed.
