Plans lodged to revive city's first distillery

The Oxford Artisan Distillery traded in South Park for seven years before moving to a larger venue in Yorkshire in 2024

Plans have been lodged for the revival of a former distillery.

The barn at Cheney Farm at the top of South Park in Headington, Oxford, used to be home to The Oxford Artisan Distillery (Toad) until the business moved out of the city in 2024.

Toad founder Tom Nicolson has since formed a new company called The Oxford Spirit Group, which wants to bring the distillery back into use and open to visitors in the summer of 2026.

Oxford City Council, which owns the site, awarded the lease to the new business.

Toad, Oxford's first distillery, opened in 2017 and was rebranded to Fielden in 2024.

It traded in South Park for seven years before relocating to a larger venue in Yorkshire.

In November, the city council filed a planning application to use the farm as a commercial site and utilise the barn as storage but withdrew the proposal in January.

The Oxford Spirit Group has now applied to extend the previous planning permission and retain the barn as a distillery for a further three years.

The company plans to submit further plans as part of a multi-million pound investment in the site, which will include dual function tasting and dining spaces, toilets for the distillery and South Park, a kiosk and other technical spaces.