Bradley

Bradley Farm
Home produced Beef and Lamb

Bradley Farm is situated at the centre of Hadrian's Wall and includes the land around Housesteads Fort. The farm lies to the South side of the wall mostly between the military road and Hadrian's Wall. The farm is about 500 acres in size and is all permanent pasture.

The land beside Hadrian's Wall has been farmed for centuries and there are remains of Iron Age hut circles to be seen.

The Roman remains of the Wall and forts still dominates the landscape , less obvious though are the cultivation terraces that run the length of the farm left from a more intensive farming era when the Romans were feeding their garrison .

Much of the farm shows signs of Ridge and Furrow ploughing even some very steep parts of the fell have been ploughed in the past probably during the Napoleonic wars.

There are lime kilns on the farm built from about 1790 to produce lime to decrease soil acidity to improve the grass.

The farm is part of the National Trusts Hadrian's Wall Estate and has been farmed for the last sixteen years by the Acton family.
	The farm had been run as a traditional hill farm stocked with suckler cows and hill sheep. Before the Foot and Mouth outbreak the farm had a flock of regularly aged Swaledale sheep and a herd of Aberdeen Angus crossFriesian suckler cows. Unfortunately along with most of the area the farm was culled. Since Foot and Mouth they have restocked the farm with pedigree Aberdeen Angus cows with the intention of selling breeding stock and our own quality meat.
The Swaledale sheep have been replaced by mule ewes (a cross bred sheep, Swaledale x Blueface Leicester) which are put to a Texel ram to produce a quality fat lamb. They also have North Country Cheviot ewes which are native breed renown for producing good tasty lambs for meat.
Should you be walking the new Hadrian's Wall Trail this year then you will walk along the Northern boundary of Bradley Farm, part of this trail is also the Pennine Way. They hope that you enjoy your visit and that you are able to take in the wonderful views and that you see some of the fantastic livestock who are looking after the countryside for you.