The farm was originally planted in 1880 by Lord Sudeley. Although the name may suggest it was in some way connected to the Castle this was not the case.

 At this time Lord Sudeley also planted a further four fruit farms on the outskirts of Winchcombe although regrettably these have long since been removed. The land was originally planted with apples and cob nuts and in fact we still have some of the original cob nuts and one original Bramley tree left. This can be viewed from the Gillettes nature trail.

Now, more than 100 years on, Hayles Fruit Farm continues to operate as a commercial venture. The Harrell family, who have been farming at Hailes since 1950 continue to farm 134 acres of mixed fruit.

Traditionally the fruit was marketed through the local wholesale markets but as the business developed they were to become part of a co-operative organisation in order to market their fruit more effectively. 

This saw the introduction of selling to the supermarket chains. With the viability of growing English fruit very borderline our diversification programme was then born.