The Payne family’s ancestors have been farming at Pine Trees Farm, Doddington, Kent since 1939.

Over the years the 50-acre farm has evolved from being a mixture of fruit and arable, toexclusively farming fruit since the mid-1970s.

Almost 70 years after the family’s ancestors started farming at Pine Trees Farm, Rob Payne became the 5th generation to join the family business.

The fruit industry, particularly for smaller farms, is a struggling sector in UK agriculture, but Rob was determined to find a way to pay his wage and continue farming.

Making cider seemed like a natural progression. Using apples grown on the farm, Rob made his first small batch of cider in 2009 to sell at local farmers’ markets.

By 2011 the small-scale production had doubled two-fold and Pine Trees Farm cider (as it was then known) was attracting a real following from local pubs and farmers’ markets.

Rob decided his cider needed a more marketable name, and discovered that the 11th Century origin of the village name, Doddington, was Dudda’s Tun.

The connection was instant, Dudda’s Tun not only represents the location of the family farm, but the very roots and unique style of cider we produce.

…and so, Dudda’s Tun Cider was born.