Meet the Procters
Marlfield Farm is a small family business. Five generations of Procter family have run the farm for over 120 years, and in that time, we're proud to say that not much has changed!
Heather and Rowan
Here are Heather and Rowan bottle feeding one of our North Ronaldsay lambs in 2019. The lamb is called Jenny!
Rowan has grown up around the sheep and loves to be involved in everything we do.
One of Heather's earliest memories is of feeding lambs near her home in Northamptonshire when she was a child.
Heather and Rowan
Here are Heather and Rowan bottle feeding one of our North Ronaldsay lambs in 2019. The lamb is called Jenny!
Rowan has grown up around the sheep and loves to be involved in everything we do.
One of Heather's earliest memories is of feeding lambs near her home in Northamptonshire when she was a child.
Daniel and Rowan
Here are Daniel and Rowan going to take a bale of our hay to feed the sheep one morning in autumn 2019.
Rowan enjoys feeding the sheep; one of his first words was "hay".
Daniel returned to Marlfield Farm in 2015 with his wife Heather to take on the running of the farm and introduce the rare breed sheep to the flock.
Daniel and Rowan
Here are Daniel and Rowan going to take a bale of our hay to feed the sheep one morning in autumn 2019.
Rowan enjoys feeding the sheep; one of his first words was "hay".
Daniel returned to Marlfield Farm in 2015 with his wife Heather to take on the running of the farm and introduce the rare breed sheep to the flock.
Howard and Lynda
Howard and Lynda took the farm in a different direction in 1984. Milk quotas meant that producing milk at Marlfield was no longer economical and so the dairy herd was replaced with a beef herd.
In 2008, they decided to plant a significant area of the farm with a mixed-species native broad-leaved woodland. This marked a shift in the focus of the farm, moving away from purely livestock to a more diverse and environmentally-balanced way of farming, which still continues today.
Howard is still kept busy today looking after some very tame, but somewhat aged, commercial ewes!
Howard and Lynda
Howard and Lynda took the farm in a different direction in 1984. Milk quotas meant that producing milk at Marlfield was no longer economical and so the dairy herd was replaced with a beef herd.
In 2008, they decided to plant a significant area of the farm with a mixed-species native broad-leaved woodland. This marked a shift in the focus of the farm, moving away from purely livestock to a more diverse and environmentally-balanced way of farming, which still continues today.
Howard is still kept busy today looking after some very tame, but somewhat aged, commercial ewes!
Thomas Procter 2nd
Here is Thomas Procter (2nd) pictured in the "Well Field" at Marlfield Farm. Perhaps he was checking the spring water supply in this photo which still provides spring water to the farmhouse today.
It was Thomas who paid off the mortgage on the farm and went on to establish the commercial milk business at Marlfield, selling any surplus milk on a milk stand at the end of the farm road.
Thomas Procter 2nd
Pictured below is Thomas Procter (2nd) pictured in the "Well Field" at Marlfield Farm. Perhaps he was checking the spring water supply in this photo which still provides spring water to the farmhouse today.
It was Thomas who paid off the mortgage on the farm and went on to establish the commercial milk business at Marlfield, selling any surplus milk on a milk stand at the end of the farm road.
Thomas Procter 1st
Below is a photo of Thomas (Tommy) Procter showing off his mare and foal. They are stood at the bottom of "The Copy", which is the field where we still regularly make our traditional meadow hay.
Tommy Procter as the first of the Procters to farm at Marlfield Farm, having moved here from Cocket Farm near Lothersdale just before the turn of the 20th century.
Thomas Procter 1st
Here is Thomas (Tommy) Procter showing off his mare and foal. They are stood at the bottom of "The Copy", which is the field where we still regularly make our traditional meadow hay.
Tommy Procter as the first of the Procters to farm at Marlfield Farm, having moved here from Cocket Farm near Lothersdale just before the turn of the 20th century.