The Farmers Mart Oct/Nov 2014 - Issue 36 | Page 14

INGfield farm shop

Ingfield Farm Shop:
where the 70s meet
the 21st century…
IAN WILKINSON meets John and
James Bamford of Ingfield Farm
Shop in Southowram, Halifax.
Ingfield Farm Shop is the
visible face of three very
strong businesses set up
by John Bamford back in
1974.
The farm runs 70 head of
beef along with significant
grassland; then there is the
highly successful potato
wholesalers to Yorkshire’s
busy catering and takeaway
trade (if you’ve eaten chips
out, chances are they are from
Bamfords).
That business has built its
success on quality – they
source the finest potatoes
from Lincolnshire, shifting a
staggering 100 tons a week
or more - and often supplying
many chains, including Mother
Hubbards. Not content
with that, they also supply
marrowfat peas, beef dripping
(believed by many to be the
only way to cook “proper”
chips), as well as palm and
vegetable oil.
As if John wasn’t busy
enough, 12 years ago he
opened the Ingfield Farm

Shop. Behind that new
enterprise was the fact that
there was no-one in the valley
supplying fresh vegetables and
other produce. Ingfield is the
only shop of its kind as close
to the centre of Halifax.
With the advent and growth
of supermarkets, local
butchers and bakers continued
to disappear and so the farm
shop grew in popularity and
increased the breadth of its
range. So much so, in fact,
that four years ago one of
the old barns was completely
re-roofed, sandblasted and
refurbished to house the
current shop.
John was greatly assisted by
his son, James, who is a joiner
by trade and who at the time
was a senior project manager
for an insurance builder.
The shop’s success has
really been down to it
possessing a friendly village
farm shop atmosphere coupled
with a keen eye on quality
and the ability to supply good
quantities.

The shop has its own Bakery,
where all their own pies and
savouries are produced, a
superb butchery department
which sells all its own beef and
locally reared pork, along with
home dry cured bacon, plus
lamb and chicken.
It’s a paradise for sausage