Family firm is preserving the heritage of the Norfolk Black turkey

At the balmy height of summer, Christmas could not seem further away for most of us.

But it is the constant focus for the poultry farmers who have made it their duty to provide the traditional centre-piece for festive feasts.

And now one family firm has ambitions to inspire the same year-round interest among the public in the rich heritage of one of our most famous turkey breeds.

Peele's Norfolk Black Turkeys, based at Thuxton near Dereham, is celebrating 135 years of rearing and selling the birds, known for their jet-black plumage and finely-textured meat.

Farm owner James Graham is the fourth generation of the family to have dedicated themselves to the preservation of the breed, which was saved from extinction in the 1950s by his grandfather Frank Peele.

This year the family business is celebrating its 135th year – but the history of the bird itself stretches back much further than that.

Despite its familiar East Anglian name, the Norfolk Black actually originated in South America and is believed to have been introduced to Europe by the Spanish explorer Pedro Nino around the year 1500.

And so the current custodian of the breed hopes to build a museum to educate his customers about the bird's fascinating background, and the family who have made it their business to put it on the Christmas dinner table.

Mr Graham said: 'There is a great ignorance about what we do in agriculture, so I have this idea of doing a turkey museum and tying that to educational visits.

'This is our 135th year of looking after turkeys as a family, so I think we're reasonably well paced to say what a proper turkey is. My biggest problem is getting the message out to the next generation of customers.

'Most families don't want the hassle of waiting around for a turkey or driving to get one. But I think we can tell a story, and tell them that the bird on the table which is about to feed them is not just any bird, it has got a bit of history behind it.

'We have got the original farm buildings, and with a bit of tidying up we could tell this history through pictures and artefacts of equipment to tell the story of how the black turkey became such a famous Norfolk breed, and how the involvement of the Peele family has kept this breed alive. In my grandfather's leaflets he always claimed this was the home of the Norfolk Black turkey, and I still maintain that today.'

The Peele family originates from Lincolnshire but in 1880 they came to Stanfield Hall farm, outside Wymondham. In 1932 Mr Graham's grandfather Frank Peele bought Rookery Farm at Thuxton which was a 157-acre small mixed farm, as it remains today.

'After the war in the 1950s it became evident to him that everybody was moving away from the more traditional breed of the Norfolk Black turkey and the bronze, and were going to the white broad-breasted turkeys,' he said. 'He liked the taste of the Norfolk Black and he was worried that the breed would become extinct.

'There was a Mr Bell at the Morley Research Station who was also interested in poultry, and between the pair of them they started a breeding programme with as many non-related Norfolk Black turkeys from around the country that they could. That is what we retain here today.

'The birds that we have on this farm are very special. My grandparents did not like change. They were a bit old-fashioned but, if not for that, the Norfolk Black would probably have been lost as a breed in this country.'

About 75pc of the farm's birds are Norfolk Black turkeys, but in order to offer a wider range of sizes, the business also rears other breeds including the Cambridge Bronze, Bourbon Red, Lavender and Royal Palm.

The traditional, commercial poultry operation at Rookery Farm is labour intensive, with turkeys mating naturally, and all poults reared outside and allowed to mature slowly. The rations are mixed using the farm's own home-grown wheat, barley, oats and beans.

'We look after the pure Norfolk Black turkey,' said Mr Graham. 'There are lots of birds out there at Christmas, but many are not as traditional as you might imagine, as they don't have the ability to function in the world.

'We are still breeding them naturally, so they have to be relatively long in the leg, and they cannot carry a very wide breast plate. The average weight of the hens is 11-12lb and the stags are 20-22lb. If you compare that to hybridised birds the hens will go to 20-30lbs and the stags will be 30-50lbs if they just feed them willy-nilly.

'Ours don't get any bigger, so we always have this constant battle that people say they want a 20lb hen and I say I cannot do it.

'It would be far easier to say we won't keep the turkeys pure, and we will cross them into commercial strains and be like everybody else. But we won't do that. My grandfather would turn in his grave. We keep the breed going in its purest form,, and you can taste the difference.'

Mr Graham, a member of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, keeps a flock of about 300 breeding Norfolk Blacks, with about 2,000-2,500 birds hand-plucked and sold during Christmas season, which still accounts for the majority of his trade. In December, the family work unit of Mr Graham, his mother Pat and his partner Claire Sims is augmented with seasonal help drawn in from surrounding villages.

To reduce wastage, feathers from the turkeys are sold through a feather merchant. Some have been turned into branded quills and sold as official merchandise for the Harry Potter movies, and Mr Graham said the Queen's grand-daughter Zara Phillips was wearing one of his feathers in her hat at Royal Ascot last year.

The history of the Norfolk Black turkey

The ancestors of Norfolk Black turkeys were discovered in South America by the Spanish explorer Pedro Nino around the end of the 15th century. He traded them with Aztec Indians for glass beads, and brought them back to Europe.

Turkeys are believed to have first been brought to Britain in 1526 by Yorkshireman William Strickland.

Henry VIII was the first English king to enjoy black turkey, although Edward VII made it fashionable to eat it at Christmas. Indeed turkey was a luxury right up until the 1950s when refrigerators became commonplace.

They favoured drier conditions to be reared, so East Anglia became the main poultry-growing area. Many farmers in Norfolk liked and kept this bird, hence its name.

The Norfolk Black has developed over the centuries through selective breeding and is now recognised as English in origin. It was taken back to America in the 1600s where it was crossed with the Eastern Wild and from those matings came the Slate, Narragansett and Bronze breeds.

By 1720, about 250,000 turkeys were walked from Norfolk to the London markets in small flocks of 300-1000. They started in August and fed on stubble fields and feeding stations along the A12 road. Their feet were dipped in tar to protect them.

Turkey facts

• Only turkey stags 'gobble' while hens make a clicking sound

• The American Indians hunted wild turkey for its sweet, juicy meat as early as 1,000AD. Turkey feathers were used to stabilise arrows and adorn ceremonial dress.

• A stag can produce as many as 1,500 poults during a hen's six-month production cycle

• Turkeys do not have ears like ours, but have very good hearing

• Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. However wild turkeys can fly short for distances up to 55 miles per hour and can run 20 miles per hour

• There are 43 different breeds of turkey. The most common in the UK are the standard white, bronze and Norfolk black breeds.