About Us
Our family has been farming in the historic Peak District village of Sheen for several generations. We are from a long lineage of uplands farmers on all sides of our family and we are passionate about our animals and where we live. Our aim is to bring you a taste of the wonderfully flavoured meats which we are able to produce by traditionally rearing our livestock in this very special landscape.
We've been here almost as long as the hills...
The Critchlow family name can be traced back to this part of the Peak District as far back as the 1500s with ancestors of ours having lived at numerous farms within the village of Sheen. Ralph Wood Critchlow and his wife Elizabeth were the first of our direct relatives to live at Manor Farm, moving here in 1916.
Broadmeadow Hall Farm, Sheen was added to the family’s farming enterprise in 1941 when Ralph and Elizabeth’s son John Kinder Critchlow and his wife Myra moved there. John and Myra later returned to Manor Farm in 1955 but retained Broadmeadow Hall Farm and the two properties have been farmed together by the family in some form or other ever since.
Today the two family farms continue to operate in unison, under the Critchlow Brothers partnership which comprises John Ralph Critchlow (John and Myra’s eldest son) and his two nephews Joseph and Ralph Critchlow. John and Joseph live at Manor Farm together with Joseph’s wife Lorna and their two children Ida and Ted. Ralph lives at Broadmeadow Hall Farm with his partner Charlotte. John is retired but still enjoys keeping a close eye on what the next generation are getting up to on the farm.
We all consider ourselves incredibly lucky to be here in Sheen, working and farming the land in much the same way as our ancestors did – albeit with the help of modern machinery and 21st century technology for which we are (usually) very grateful!
Sheen Village
There is a lot of useful information on Peak District Online’s page about the village. For those interested in the great outdoors, there is plenty of interest at the Ordnance Survey website.