The flock began when Richard Chantler (Penny’s late husband) was head shepherd for Wye College, Kent. At the time the college started a breeding program to improve British Romneys using NZ Romney genetics. The program was deemed successful and sometime later it concluded having considerably improved the productivity and efficiency of the original genetic pool.
In conjunction to the college flock, Richard also ran his own flock of British Romneys. In 1986 he was awarded a Nuffield scholarship in which he spent time in New Zealand on some very progressive stud flocks. On his return he started to import genetics from one particularly productive and successful flock that he visited to introduce to his flock. When the college breeding trail finished Richard and Penny got the fantastic opportunity to purchase the flock so they could merge it into their own. Then in 1996 Richard and Penny moved to Hill Farm in Wales to continue their progress of breeding highly productive Romneys through regular imports of NZ genetics.
In 2012 Richard sadly passed away in New Zealand on his annual scanning trip, leaving the farm in the hands of Penny, Sam and Will to continue what he started.