CHOCS AWAY!

Foodie businesses in Hawkshead are enjoying the taste of success and are one of the reasons crowds flock to the charming and historic village

-  Mike Glover

With its cobbled square, traffic-free centre and buildings going back to pre-Tudor times, Hawkshead has long had a chocolate-box image so it is fitting that one of the latest enterprises to join its attractions is a based on the cocoa bean.

Hawkshead Chocolate Factory, nestling in the clutch of shops around the car park oozes celebration of the sweet stuff. Not only does it sell an endless selection of luxury and novelty delicacies, it gives visitors the opportunity to make their own.

The old Lancashire village’s own Willy Wonka is Andrew Wilson who comes from a long-line of chocolate entrepreneurs. He was the third generation to run famed Kendal Mint Cake and novelty chocolate makers, Wilson’s, which started in Kendal back in 1913.

Around its centenary, the original factory moved to near Holme on the LancashireWestmorland border, but had to go into administration in January 2016 due to massive overheads. The brand is still going strong with Andrew buying back the name.

Andrew and his wife Fiona, who is Hawkshead born and bred, bought an existing clothing shop, gutted it and began the chocolate making as a franchise of the Scotland-based Cocoa Bean company.