Once a trade secret and loved by the UK’s top chefs, world-class trout from Dorset’s quiet Winterborne valley are being championed by a local farmer
If you have ever driven through the tiny village of Winterborne Houghton, you’ve probably seen the old cress beds and wondered what happens behind the gates. What you may not know is that for decades, Houghton Springs Trout Farm has quietly produced some of the best rainbow trout in the country – fish with a big reputation among top chefs. Now, under the new stewardship of Justin Frampton, this little-known business is ready to step into the limelight.
‘I’ve known the farm all my life,’ says Justin, standing beside one of the stone ponds where the water bubbles up fresh from the chalk aquifer. ‘I live just up the lane. When the farm came up for sale, I thought there had to be a business here. Life for shops on the high street is getting harder and harder – but people will always eat fish.’
kejime
The farm has a fascinating history stretching back 50 years. Originally it was a watercress farm and wild watercress still grows across the farm and down the river to the next village, naturally enriching the water. A fish farm was built in 1974, and 40 years ago Dutch engineer Hans Hoff bought the land. He dedicated years to developing what he called the Winterborne strain of rainbow trout – genetically selected (but not genetically modified, Justin stresses) for their meaty texture and excellent conversion of feed to flesh. Today, some of the country’s top sushi restaurants buy fish from Houghton Springs, thanks in part to a traditional Japanese harvesting method called ikejime, which preserves the quality of the meat. ‘We don’t do huge volumes,’ says Justin. ‘But enough that chefs know where to come if they want something special.’
Off to Billingsgate
Most of the year, the ponds are topped up by a hidden lifeline beneath the Dorset chalk. ‘We’re unusual because we’re a compartmental farm – the only one in the country,’ Justin says. ‘We haven’t got a river above or below, because the Winterborne dries up (a bourne is a seasonal stream that flows only in winter when the water table rises). That little bit of river between us and Stickland is only flowing because we’re pumping a shed load of water 24/7! In the winter, the springs are literally bubbling up through the ponds, so we don’t run any pumps then.’
All that pumping comes at a cost – electricity is one of the farm’s biggest overheads – and Justin is exploring ways to improve sustainability. ‘We’re looking at floating solar panels. It’s pretty much unheard of here, though they do it in Australia,’ he says. ‘It could help with evaporation, keep the panels cool and maybe even be good for the fish.’
Hundreds of thousands of eggs, fry and fish are produced and sold to other farms across the country, alongside those finished onsite for table fish and sporting fish. Most of the trout are sold at table size – 400 to 600 grams – and travel overnight to Billingsgate Market in London.
Justin has plans to change that. ‘I want to cut out the middleman,’ he says. ‘If you walk into The Ivy in London and see Winterborne trout on the menu, you should be able to look it up and know exactly where it came from. I want people to think: “that’s amazing trout, I’ll buy direct.” – and then actually to be able to do so.’
Image: Heather Brown
Valley food
Closer to home, the farm has been winning over local customers, thanks in part to a simple farm-gate cool box scheme that started life in lockdown. ‘We’d put six fish in there in the morning,’ Justin says. ‘If they were gone by lunchtime, we’d put another six out! Now we’re selling more and more every week.’
He has ambitious plans to make the operation more visible and bring together the area’s producers. ‘We’ve got Rosie’s cider in the village, really good local honey, the Coopers up the hill with their South Paddocks pork pies and pasties … Eventually, I’d love to have a space here where people can pick up not just fish but all the other produce from the valley.’
Some of the bigger trout – up to five kilos – are now being hot and cold smoked, adding yet another string to the farm’s bow. Justin is working with long-standing Dorset friends like The Real Cure to create smoked products with the same focus on traceability and taste.
It’s clear that for Justin, this is more than just a business. ‘This is my future,’ he says. ‘I’ve come back to my roots – farming. Only this time, it’s fish instead of sheep! You move them, feed them, clean them – it really is just farming in a different form.’
In a county already brimming with celebrated food producers, Houghton Springs is stepping into the spotlight, proving that even the most tucked-away places can offer something remarkable.
