NENE PEOPLE
Jon and Andy Parrott
Sue Dobson talks to the father and son duo about their grand plans for Olive Grove Oundle
Father and son Andy and Jon are determined to keep their new business ‘distinctive and different’
J
ON Parrott’s enthusiasm is infectious, whether he’s talking about Olive Grove Oundle – which he and his father Andy bought last summer – the town of Oundle, the surrounding villages or the local people. He loves the area so much he’s moved here. Neither Jon nor Andy is new to the business of plants. Come March, it will be 27 years since Andy, then an engineer, took over a pea field to set in motion a grand plan. Since then the Parrott family has built up the vast and hugely successful Waterside Garden Centre at Baston. “We’d been looking to expand in a different area but nothing had come up that interested us,” Andy explains. “Then a good customer at Waterside told us about The Olive Grove at Polebrook. I’d never heard of it, so I drove over to take a look. It was mid-December and cold, the grounds were not in great shape, but I loved it and immediately phoned Jon to come and see.” “I was blown away,” Jon says. “It was so different from anything I’d ever seen, such a break from the norm, a fantastic destination. I could see how we could build on and enhance
what was already there.” Build on, not change, are the operative words. “We’re not changing the ethos. It’s important that we keep that Mediterranean feel in the plants, the food in the Bistro, in the Deli and in the décor,” Jon says. “We’re not a nursery and we’re not a garden centre,” Andy chips in. “We’re Olive Grove Oundle: distinctive, different and special.”
Olive trees Impatient to get started on their new project, they made copious plans and set off on buying trips to Spain for hardy olive trees and palms and to Italy “for everything else that’s big!” It was at Elche, near Alicante, that they found the olive tree that’s destined to be their star attraction. “It is seven metres tall, weighs over seven tonnes, the trunk has a circumference of four metres and it is certified to be between 800 and 1,000 years old,” Jon exclaims. “It will be the oldest and largest olive tree in the UK, by far!” Its arrival in Oundle is destined to be newsworthy.
At seven metres tall, this olive tree is destined to be the oldest and largest in the UK... NENE LIVING FEBRUARY 2017
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