The Champagne Of Ciders

A narrowboat ride near Masham sowed the seeds for an award-winning cider business

- Claudia Robinson

It was 12 years ago Kingsley Ash and wife, Susie, decided to leave the rat race of London and move to Yorkshire.

Kingsley had an exciting job working in the music industry but living and working in the capital – read long commutes and lots of evening meetings – meant there was little time for real-life outside of work. Kingsley and Susie were keen to start a family, too, and London was not where they wanted to do that.

They gave up their jobs and bought a narrowboat, which provided some much-needed time out and was also the perfect vehicle in which to explore Britain’s beautiful countryside. Many years ago Kingsley worked in York, and they had friends who lived near Masham, so they already had a soft spot for Yorkshire.

A narrowboat ride up to Leeds, some additional exploring and they soon found their first home on an estate near Masham. Their first child, Herbie (now 12), was born soon after and was joined by little sister, Edie, three years later.

Unbeknown to Kingsley at the time, it was this move that heralded the start of his new career. Cider-making. And award-winning cider at that!

Kingsley helped out on the estate, which had lots of apple trees and he couldn’t bear to see them go to waste, rotting on the ground. He collected up the unwanted apples, pressed them and made his first ever batch of cider. ‘I’d never tried making cider before,’ says Kingsley, ‘But it seemed like the obvious thing to do, and it was fun. I bought an antique cider press on eBay from a farmer in Sheffield, modified a garden shredder to mash up the apples and it all seemed to work. It was so satisfying seeing the juice flowing out from the apples.’

That was in 2009, the same year that Kingsley and Susie got married, when they served his first batch of cider instead of champagne at their wedding.