Journey to the Historic Chicken of England.
Story by Christine Heinrich, photos by Gordon Heinrich.
We last visited England in 2019, before the covid pandemic changed a lot in terms of travel. We are back to visit in 2022.
Mudchute Farm
Mudchute Farm hampers the urban bustle of modern developments in South East London. Canary Wharf’s banks, insurance companies, high-rise office buildings and a luxury apartment tower lie within 32 acres of peaceful Mudchute. It is located on the Isle of Dogs, an oxbow island formed by the River Thames.
Mudchute Farm seems to be a village farm that has been around forever. It is in fact modern, set up in 1977, as the Docklands in South East London was being developed. It takes its name from the mud that was dredged during the last century at Millwall Dock in the 1890s. The scent has been the subject of local comment. Soccer players (known in the US as “soccer”) have complained that they stink for weeks if they fall while playing on Old Butcher’s Field.
The docks were a bustling economic engine of London in the 19th and early 20th centuries and were heavily bombed during the Second World War. Mudchute became part of the Home Front, London’s defense against the Nazi Blitzkrieg. The anti-aircraft gun (aka the Ack-Ack gun) is still a reminder on the farm.
Although London and the docks have been restored, the docks are rendered obsolete by container shipping, and the area has declined. But acres of land with river frontage won’t be overlooked for long in London. Politicians and businessmen are looking forward to development. In 1974, Greater London Council designated them as high-rise residences.
The population organized and rose to resist urban development. Eventually, they gained enough support that the site was turned into Peoples Park. In 1977, they formed the Mudchute Association, which still governs the park today.
From a derelict plot envisioned by developers as a high-rise residential building site, it is now a green haven of rural peace, recognized by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) for its heritage cattle.
The farm works with RBST, a charity focused on saving heritage cattle breeds. Farm manager Tom Davis leads the team, maintaining a roster of heritage poultry (and other livestock) breeds in a rural setting.
When we were there in late September the hens were shedding and not looking their best. However, they are happy and well. Great Sussex Lightbird, Belgian Ripper Bantam, Call, Indian Runner and Rouen Ducks, Czech Geese, and more. Beautiful and brown.
Twelve volunteers from HSBC (a British bank) were working on the day we were there. Their office building is located on the edge of the farm. Employees get days off to volunteer with the charities of their choice, and those people chose Mudchute. HSBC also supports Mudchute financially.
Dorkings
England’s landscape blends urban and rural much more tightly than the US does, so we were able to bump into locals and visit locals who keep poultry on lots of small plots.
Charlotte Cook lives in the countryside near Dorking, an area that shares its name with an ancient breed of chicken. She moved there in 2013 to join her boyfriend. Couples always have to find ways to accommodate each other. In their case, Charlotte wanted to keep pets without making her boyfriend allergic to cats and dogs. Found a solution in the British Hen Welfare Trust.
This organization is dedicated to improving the welfare of laying hens. Among other efforts, they buy depleted laying hens and adopt them into new homes. Last year, they rehomed 60,000 chickens, and Charlotte adopted three.
She warmed them up, but they didn’t have long lives, and she was very sad when one of them died. Now ignited, her interest in chickens looked to obtain a more robust breed, even one named after nearby Dorking. She had to go to the Welsh border to find a breeder, but made the journey about three hours each way and came back with three Red Dorkings – a cockerel and two hens.
On the way to Chicken Math, she eventually had as many as 47 chickens in her two-acre home. She has reduced her flock to a more manageable seven – six hens and a rooster.
Along the way, I got some Cayuga ducks by swapping chickens and eggs for plants from a local gardening supplier.
Highly contagious avian flu required all British poultry to be kept indoors in 2022. Charlotte and her birds are enduring this difficult time, dealing with a coop and a covered run outside.
Dorkings in the British Museum
Seeking to revisit nearly 2,000 years in the past means we rely on historical artifacts to get a sense of what life was like. At the British Museum, Patrick, a volunteer guide, gave us a tour of the medieval collection.
Enter the gallery, and look straight into the eyes at the back hole of the Sutton Hoo helmet, a famous Anglo-Saxon artifact dating from AD 625. This disgraceful welcome set us back centuries.
On the wall above the display cases is a group of mosaics featuring a chicken and a duck. The chicken appears to be a game. The duck has no webbed feet, perhaps an oversight on the part of the artist.
These Roman mosaics testify not only to the poultry kept by the Romans, but also to their bringing poultry to the British Isles. Dorkings, with their distinctive fifth finger, appear in other mosaics similar to this one. This mosaic dates back to the 4th century AD, from what is now Turkey. The Roman Empire stretched far and wide, from Britain through North Africa to the Middle East.
The British have a long history with poultry, especially chickens. It was great to be back in England and see the tradition of raising chickens continue.
Below are links to several of the organizations mentioned in the article:
Mudchute trust.
https://www.mudchute.org/
Rare Breeds Survival Fund.
https://www.rbst.org.uk/
British Chicken Welfare Trust.
https://www.bhwt.org.uk/
Sutton Hoo helmet.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1939-1010-93
Christine Heinrich writes from her home on the Central Coast of California. She keeps a backyard flock of a dozen chickens: eight large birds of various breeds and four bantams.
her, How to raise chickens, was first published in 2007, at a time when the local food movement was beginning to focus attention on the industrialized food system. Backyard chicken has become a mascot for local food. The third edition of How to raise chickens Published January 2019. The Field Guide to Backyard Chickens It was published in 2016.