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These are not just any chocolate, cherry and almond biscuits, these are the Prince of Wales’s own Highgrove Organic Chocolate, Cherry and Almond Biscuits.

At £3.50 for 150g, or about six, they are unlikely to appeal to the people who buy ginger nuts and digestives from the supermarket directly opposite the Prince’s new shop in the Cotswolds town of Tetbury.

This is not just any farm shop. It is not even an upmarket, ultra-posh, smothered in the richest Belgian chocolate with a cherry on top farm shop – it is called Highgrove and sells products from the Prince’s estate a mile and a half down the road.

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By introducing a range of products that cannot be bought anywhere else, the Prince has appointed himself shop-keeper-in-chief to the Range Rover classes. A glimpse through the elegant Georgian windows before the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall arrived to open the premises for business formally yesterday lunchtime revealed that everything is in the best possible taste. Bare stone walls are decorated with ancient farming implements. Stripped wooden shelving, terracotta tiles and oak floors were all approved by the Prince, who is determined that the shop should reflect his ethos and lifestyle.

China cups decorated with pictures of the Highgrove hens share space on the shelves with wooden gardening implements crafted after Victorian originals. Easter daffodils grown at Highgrove burst forth from giant yellow ostrich eggs planted in hand-thrown flower pots bearing the patina of decades in the potting shed.

White chocolate bars embossed with Highgrove House’s pillared front elevation, ceramics decorated by graduates of the Prince’s art school, hand-woven woollen throws in muted mauve and yellow made from off cuts: it is all frightfullytasteful.

The only bling on display was a range of gilt-edged porcelain that included a £350 charger commemmorating the Prince’s coming 60th birthday in November. Other products range from seasonal fruit and veg from Home Farm at Highgrove to bars of soap imported from the world’s oldest soap factory in the Lebanon.

There is not a plastic bag in sight, of course. Even the organic Highgrove carrots (£1.20 a kilo, inclusive of royal mud) come in brown paper bags with the Prince of Wales’s feather emblem. Watch for the bags on eBay, they will probably be worth more than the carrots.

The Prince hopes that the shop will make £100,000 a year for his charities and will not be keeping any of the profits.

Tetbury is the perfect place for the venture into retailing: how many other high streets can boast a bespoke cello maker and a shop selling nothing but antique kitchen tables for £1,600 a piece? Even the local coffee shop uses organic milk for its Fairtrade cappuccino and tops it with a spoonful of Charbonnel et Walker chocolate flakes. Prices at Highgrove are on a par with a National Trust shop. Paintings by the Prince were at the top and bottom end of the price scale. A book of his watercolours was a bargain-bin £6.50, but a limited edition water-colour was the most expensive item at £2,500.

Christine Prescott, Highgrove’s commercial director, said: “You cannot buy this elsewhere. Everything is unique and has a genuine provenance, the money is going to good causes. That will tempt people to buy.”

More than 23,000 people a year visit the gardens at Highgrove on organised tours and there is a two-year waiting list for places. At the end of the Highgrove tour visitors are allowed to buy a souvenir of their visit in a small shop on the estate. Now those products, plus several hundred more, will be available to all.

Even those who might find themselves in competition are in favour. Hortensia Oates who owns a chocolate shop said: “It will bring visitors into the town and that’s got to be a good thing.”

The royal emporium where a touch of class comes at a price

Garden trowel £15
Trug £22.50
Teapot decorated with wild flowers from Highgrove £69.95
Hand-woven Highgrove willow basket £35
Bunch of Home Farm leeks £1.35
Highgrove carrots £1.20/kg
Large Highgrove hen jug £22.95
Spiced fruit chutney £4.95
Nesting box £45
Easter floral display £29
Highgrove honey made by royal bees £5.95
Large Highgrove white chocolate bar £12.95

Opening hours: 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday; noon to 5pm Sundays

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