Our History — Celebrating 130 Years
This year Peele's Norfolk Black Turkeys is celebrating 130 years of breeding, rearing and selling turkeys for the Christmas market. We continue to maintain tradition and provenance, as in my grandparents' day, and we are immensely proud of our heritage, welfare practices, and rearing techniques.
"IN 1880 MY GREAT GRANDFATHER Ernest E. Peele and his brother George J. Peele sent their first consignment of turkeys to the London markets from Wymondham in Norfolk. In those days it took about a week to deliver seven tons of rough-plucked turkeys on a drug propelled by a steam engine.
The family moved to Rookery Farm, Thuxton, in 1932 and it was at this time that my grandfather Frank Peele saved the breed of Norfolk Black Turkey from extinction. Today, we continue to rear our turkeys using the same methods laid down all those years ago by my ancestors, and as consumer and breeding trends come and go, our Norfolk Black Turkeys remain unchanged.
Thank you for your interest in our Norfolk Black turkeys, the oldest breed of turkey in the country."
—James Graham
Photos: James with one of his Norfolk Black Turkeys; Peele's plucking gang, circa 1905.
