About Us
In the late 1790’s two brothers arrived from Canada, and settled in Wales both marrying local women. Here is where the Layton Dynasty began. A family farming dynasty which has now spanned over 200 years and four generations, their name now well known locally for their quality meat products.

Initially the Laytons’ farmed pigs, with no food hygiene legislation the pigs were slaughtered and butchered on farm giving the family a foot holding in Welsh Hill Farming. One milking cow was kept as a supply of milk for the family, which would also have been used to produce butter and cream, hens would have been source of eggs and the occasional chicken dinner, and sheep were purchased usually from local markets as sheep passed breeding and would have been slaughtered for food. A far and distant cry from the enterprise of the present Layton Family.

Tom Layton born in the late 1800’s served his time in the first world war, and liked nothing better on his return to the quite welsh hills than to sit in his cattle sheds of an evening feeling the warmth from the cows and listening to the gentle munching as they chewed their cud.

Frederick James Layton, better known as Fred, worked for his Uncle Tom for years and met and married Nina June Lewis from neighbouring Farm ‘Penlan’. They moved to a little house, which was part of the farm, Blaen-y-Cwmw and were given another almost derelict house as a wedding present ‘Little Park’ by his Uncle Tom.

Fred & June raised six children at Blaen-y-Cwmr; Leonard, Christine, Joy, Patricia, Philip, and Barbara, they moved down to take over the main family farmhouse ‘Nantleach’ in 1960, when Fred’s Parents, James & Margaret, moved into a caravan in the garden. After their move to Nantleach Colin was born.

Rural Welsh life was quite hard for June bringing up her first six children at Blaen-y-Cwmr. There was no water on tap. Water had to be fetched from the well for cooking, washing, bathing and the laundry. June milked her own cow, and looked after several hens which were her supply of fresh eggs, which she sometimes put into salted water to preserve for a long time, and old hens became treat for dinner. Fred grew their own vegetables, potatoes, swedes and carrots and from an early age the children were expected to take their share in the rearing and cultivating of the animals and plants, which provided their staple diet.

Leonard, Philip, & Colin took over the running of the farm almost as soon as they were able, Colin after completing an Agricultural course at Coleg Powys, Newtown. Christine became a nanny and married Phil, settling in the original family home of Blaen-y-Cwmr, Joy married a local lad Keith, and they set up their own farming business within Powys, Patricia qualified as a nurse, married and moved to Hereford married John, and Barbara qualified as a nursing assistant, married Jeff and settled just a few miles from the family farm.

The farm differs vastly from its first endeavours. The Welsh black ‘Dolithon’ Herd, named after the river Ithon, which flows through the Ddole (Welsh for ‘Field by the river’) at Nantleach, is one of the largest in Powys. It consists of 2 First Class breeding Bulls Madog and Meirion, 51 breeding cows, 51 calves at foot (calves which still depend on their mothers for milk) and approximately 80 other store cattle or maiden heifers.

They also run two flocks of sheep on their farm. A flock of Welsh Beulah Speckleds, and a flock of Welsh Mules, these are mated with a bank of 10 Tups (Rams) including one Beulah specked, and 9 Texels. These breeding ewes produce from 900 – 1100 lambs every year. They also keep free-range hens. These are free-range hens in the truest sense, they enter there hen houses at night and are loosed out in the day to wander the farm completely at will, producing beautiful eggs with a rich golden yolk, which have won prizes at local village events, and are sold locally and at famers markets. Occasionally at Christmas Geese are produced either to give to family or to sell locally.

All animals on the farm are fed as naturally as possible. Cattle feed on grass during the summer months, drinking from natural streams and rivers. Hay and silage are produced on the farm, which sustains the cattle through the winter months. Straw has to be purchased in bulk from warmer counties and is used as litter in the cattle buildings during the winter months. Whole barley is purchased and then rolled to produce a natural fattening substance for the Welsh Black bullocks who will become part of our food chain. No artificial stimulants for fattening are used at all, and this adds to the unique taste of our Welsh Black Beef. Sheep graze on fields for ten months of the year, the other two months they would be in the sheds prior to lambing. Again these ewes and lambs graze on sweet welsh grass, and drink from fresh running steams and rivers. During winter months their diet is subsidised with home grown hay and sileage, and also some ‘sheep cake’ which is a manufactured food containing all the nutrients which a ewe in lamb requires to help sustain both her and her off spring before and after birth.