A SUPPLIER of premium edible snails is looking to take his business in a new direction.

Richard Fishbourne of Fownhope has put forward a planning application to turn his current “snail cooking cabin” near the village into a single-bedroom holiday let.

“Since Covid, business hasn’t been quite as buoyant, though it’s still profitable, so we are looking to diversify,” Mr Fishbourne said. “But for small local business that can be an uphill battle.”

L’Escargot Anglais (“the English Snail”) supplies naturally-sourced Burgundy snails (Helix pomatia), the species preferred by chefs which are around twice the size of regular garden snails, but “are not as prolific at reproducing”, he said.

Around 40,000 raw frozen snails are brought in at a time from the Continent three to four times a year, before being cooked and dispatched to customers either chilled or re-frozen in more manageable batches.

While chef Heston Blumenthal’s signature snail porridge, formerly made from L’Escargot Anglais snails, is no longer on the menu at his Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, the dish still features at Mr Blumenthal’s Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, while the company also supplies the historic L’Escargot restaurant in Soho and Herefordshire’s own Carriages at Whitestone Business Park.

But climate change “is not being kind to the pomatia snail”, whose future “is very uncertain”, Mr Fishbourne added, while Brexit “has meant more paperwork” when importing the snails from wild reserves in Europe.

“It’s a Herefordshire success story,” he said. “But it’s very niche, and goes up and down.”

His application also seeks permission to relocate the snail cooking operation to an already permitted hay store at the site.

The “aesthetic appeal” of the converted cooking cabin will meanwhile be improved in the conversion to accommodation, his application says.

This shows the building split into a double bedroom with en-suite and a combined kitchen, dining and living room.