This is a brief history of our story which dates back over 100 years. A full account of the story of the Farm is available on our Bradfields Farm history page.
Bradfields Farm has been owned by the Lambert family since 1922.
When Reg Lambert was young, he dreamt of being a farmer. His parents decided to send him off to the Middle East to work on the telegraph (morse code) and see the world and forget farming. He returned to England with malaria and a continued desire to live his farming dream.
In spring 1922 he took on part of a small farm called Bradfields. He kept the farm going through the Depression, the Second World War and numerous other challenging times
Originally starting with twelve Ayreshire cows, we now have over 120 Holstein-Fresian cows. We have a long tradition of producing delicious milk.
I am Clare, the youngest of the three Lambert sisters. We are daughters of Farmer Nick who runs the farm along with my sister, Sarah. We are a mixed farm. This means that we have grassland for the cows. We also grow as many crops as possible ourselves in order to feed to the cows.
I love cheese making and wanted to make and sell our own cheese from the Farm. I also wanted to sell fresh cream and milk, as we had from the Farm gate many years ago.
The first cheese made from our milk in our small new “cheese room” was called Chalvedon. This is a Manchego style hard cheese named after Little Chalvedon Hall which is a nearby farm that we rent. That’s where we keep our young calves and heifers before they join the herd.
In February 2017 we opened the dairy as a new enterprise. We have a small shop selling our new cheese as well as our fresh milk and cream.
Since that quiet opening, we have expanded our of dairy products. These include cream, creme fraiche as well as three types of yogurt. All of these are available from the vending machines in our shop. We also sell our products at Farmer’s markets at the Farm, locally and and in London