Our Sutton Hoo Chicken Heritage
This blog has been a real trip down memory lane, rummaging through old cabinets, files and newspapers to find all the things that tell the Sutton Hoo Chicken story and where it all began.
Many businesses have a story to tell but the Sutton Hoo Chicken one is quite exceptional! Created by people with passion, a vision for the future of farming and who were not afraid to take leaps of faith. It’s been a long journey to get to where we are today, with bumps in the road, bereavements and bravery but, we are still here.
We are proud to take a look into our past with you.
Founders, Charles and Belinda both grew up in farming families, although in rather different parts of the world. Charles was brought up on an arable farm in the UK and Belinda on a Hereford cattle breeder farm in South Africa. They met on Charles’ gap year and Belinda soon fell in love with the English countryman and moved to the UK with him.
Charles had tried one of Belinda’s mothers’ chickens that were reared on the farm in South Africa for personal consumption and hadn’t ever tasted anything quite like it – a tender, succulent chicken with strong bones wasn’t something he’d experienced in the UK. Charles soon realised there was a huge gap in the market for free range and even better, ‘slowly grown’ chickens. After ending a city career, he finally decided in the early 1990’s that he and Belinda would be one of the first to sell a properly free-range chicken. They were concerned that people wouldn’t be prepared to spend more on ‘a chicken that actually tasted of chicken’ but they carried on anyway.
“Charles and I started the business in 1994, supplying just a few farm shops and attending the local farmer’s markets. At this stage we did all the work ourselves from the feeding to the butchery. We reared our chickens more slowly than others, which meant they were more expensive than any other chicken on the market. Naturally we were worried that people would not want to spend this much on a chicken, but word spread of our delicious chickens which actually tasted of chicken”
Our timeline
1994 - Kennel Farm Chicken
Sutton Hoo Chicken wasn’t always Sutton Hoo Chicken. The business started as Kennel Farm Chicken (our home), where Charles made his dream a reality by growing a truly free range chicken that had plenty of access to the outdoors, in mobile sheds with no artificial light and natural ventilation. It was hard to find chicken sheds suitable for this ‘truly free range’ chicken, so he started to build his own that suited the vision. We still have some of Charles’ original sheds on the field today (see image below). Belinda and Charles worked tirelessly to hand feed and straw the birds, until they managed to employ someone to help.
2001 - Sutton Hoo Chicken
The chickens were moved to Sutton Hoo, a Natural Trust site and home to the Anglo-Saxon burial grounds (those who have watched The Dig will know the lovely story behind this)! There were many reasons for the move but, the main reason was soil type. Sutton Hoo has light sandy soil, perfect for the chickens to dust bath and you don’t sink knee deep into the mud during the winter months! Kennel farms heavy clay soil made farming very difficult.
2009 - Charles’ passing
In 2009, Charles suddenly passed away. His untimely death was a huge shock to the family and our community who had great respect for him. People still talk of the shock of his passing today; he touched many people throughout his life. Belinda bravely decided to persevere and carry on his dream. Although difficult, this was the best decision she could have made, growing the brand further into what it is today, a successful business that still has the same strong ethos as it did in the beginning.
“Charles is sorely missed but his passion and dedication towards traditional farming methods very much remains at the heart of what we do here at Sutton Hoo Chicken. We all take great pride in rearing our chickens in line with Charles’ vision”.
2011 - Brand update
Time for a brand update. We updated our branding slightly to be more ‘modern’ and started to venture more into the world of marketing doing our first ever food photoshoot.
2016 - Will joins the team
Will, Charles’s godson, joined Sutton Hoo Chicken after graduating from The Royal Agricultural University (RAU) in Cirencester. Will had no experience in poultry farming but got stuck in and soon became Sutton Hoo Chickens General Manager. He worked alongside Belinda, Richard and Sarah who had both been working for Charles previously.
2016 - A Big rebrand
It was time to give our brand a facelift! It was time for a refresh and a big marketing surge. We kept Charles’ famous chicken drawing but the rest was transformed. So much thought and love went into the rebranding, using the history that Sutton Hoo holds to shape our logo and brand. The Anglo-Saxon Runes and treasure were key to assisting the rebranding, using the shapes and patterns that you can see below. These inspired the patterned circle around our logo and the fonts used.
To date
Will is now our Managing Director, he and Belinda continue to run and grow the business together as business partners. On the farming side, not much has changed with how Sutton Hoo Chickens are grown. They are grown slowly over 40 acres of Suffolk meadows on average for 10 weeks and up to 12 weeks. Our birds have 24hr access to the outdoors, their sheds have no artificial light or ventilation and are constantly on the moved to fresh areas of the field. We believe these traditional farming methods work with nature rather than against it and it all results in excellent taste. This differs to a standard free range bird reared for 8 weeks that has limited access to the outdoors. We are proud of our Sutton Hoo Heritage and our ethos remains the same. A strong 30 years later, we are still a family run business with Josie, Charles and Belinda’s eldest, having recently joined the team and Annie their youngest still supporting from London. Our aims for the future are to continue to grow and educate people on why buying better chicken is so important.
