A family are at war over the future of a farm shop which has appeared on a host of TV shows including the Teletubbies.
The Country Market, in Bordon, Hampshire, has been operating since 1971 in the hands of the Marshall family.
But it became the subject of a multimillion-pound tug of war between the men and women in the family after founder Peter Marshall died aged 81 in January 2017.
With the backing of her daughter, Peter’s widow June Marshall, 86, is suing her sons, insisting the partnership through which the business is run should be wound up, the £6.6million site sold and the proceeds split.
But brothers Gary, 61, and Dean Marshall, 57, who handle the day to day running of the farm and shop, are desperate to keep the business going and within the family.
The Country Market was the brainchild of farmer Peter who launched it in the 1970s, with June helping to sell their produce door to door in her Morris Traveller.
And by 1983, Peter, whose family have farmed in the area since the 1850s, had brought more farmland into the business and in time the Country Market Partnership launched a range of different attractions on site, including a car boot sale, busy restaurant, garden centre and shopping outlets.
It has now grown from a smallholding comprising a few acres to a 200-acre spread growing produce that is sold in the shop.
The Country Market, in Bordon, Hampshire, has been operating as a farm shop since 1971 in the hands of the Marshall family, with later expansions, including a butchers and a coffee shop
The Country Market was the brainchild of farmer, Peter Marshall, and his wife, June, who launched it in the 1970s, with June helping to sell their produce by driving door to door in her Morris Traveller (Pictured: Peter and June Marshall)
It has also been the location for TV shows including BBC1’s Down to Earth, Teletubbies, South Today, Country Ways and Car Booty, its website notes.
Over the years, the partnership set up by Peter and June was expanded to include their children – Gary, Dean and Sharon.
Gary and Dean have been key figures at Country Market for nearly 40 years, with Gary joining Peter on the farm in 1980 and Dean 12 years later.
Following Peter’s death, disputes emerged ‘with regard to the winding up of the partnership and payment to Peter’s estate of his share of the partnership’, London’s High Court heard.
There was also disagreement ‘as to the extent of land included within partnership property’ and – crucially – about whether or not the farm shop partnership had been extinguished by Peter’s death.
The family clash recently reached London’s High Court with June and daughter Sharon launching their bid for a ruling that the partnership should be formally wound up and sold.
Gary and Dean insist the partnership is still ‘ongoing’ despite their father’s death.
June and Sharon’s lawyers say Peter’s death effectively terminated the partnership and that all the family members involved are now ‘under the same duty to wind up the business and sell it – with no right to continue trading’.
June herself would also struggle financially if the business remains unsold, the court heard, since she needs to sell her and Peter’s shares to give her ‘sufficient funds’.
But in their written defence, the two brothers deny that their father’s death triggered the partnership’s dissolution, accepting only that he ‘ceased to be a member of the partnership’ when he passed away.
The case, which has already racked up over £200,000 in lawyers’ bills, ended up before Deputy Master John Linwood in a two-day pre-trial hearing, during which lawyers argued over whether Gary and Dean had previously made binding ‘admissions’ accepting the partnership has been dissolved.
Sharon Marshall (pictured) is supporting her mother June in the High Court battle against her brothers over The Country Market
Dean and Gary Marshall (pictured) are fighting for their partnerships and to keep The Country Market as a family owned business
June and Sharon claimed the brothers have in the past clearly accepted that the partnership is at an end.
They highlighted a letter sent by their lawyers in September 2019 which stated there was ‘no dispute between the parties that the partnership must be wound up and the partnership business sold’, and pinpointed a dispute over land as the only remaining flashpoint.
But the brothers’ lawyers argued that any such admissions were made in error and it would be unfair not to let them withdraw them with a trial on the horizon and the stakes so high.
‘If withdrawal is not permitted, that could prejudice the value of the ongoing business and all they have done in building it over the last 30 years,’ the brothers’ solicitor, Richard Flenley, claimed.
Deputy Master John Linwood ruled against the two brothers by accepting that an admission had been made and denying them the right to withdraw it before trial.
‘I refuse the defendants’ application for permission to withdraw the admission,’ he said – before concluding: ‘Finally, I see that the parties’ costs for this one and a half day hearing amount to some £210,000.
‘I would urge them to do all they can to negotiate an end to this dispute which can only, I think, be in their very best interests, particularly in view of the costs which will increase rapidly from now onwards.’
The case will now return for trial at a later date unless a settlement is agreed first.
