Kingfisher FarmShop

Kingfisher Farm Shop sits beside its own watercress beds on the A25 at Abinger Hammer, midway between Guildford and Dorking. The family has grown watercress here in spring-fed water since 1854, once dispatching it to London by rail on the county's busiest trading day, Good Friday. The watercress beds became a shop in 1999 after decades of selling produce from a shed on the site, and the range has since grown to include local fruit and vegetables, eggs, dairy, bread and preserves from other Surrey producers. The watercress itself is still seeded and cut by hand, without insecticides or fertiliser. It closes on Sundays but opens six days a week, and remains under the same family that first cut watercress on the stream.