Charlie Stephenson, a stalwart of the free range industry

Published on : 27 Apr 2023

Charlie Stephenson, the Yorkshire-born free range egg producer who spent so much time serving BFREPA and the industry, has died aged 60.

Charlie grew up on the family dairy farm on the outskirts of Leeds. He quickly found himself drawn to poultry after leaving Caythope Agricultural College, where he graduated in Poultry and Business Management. After joining Ross Poultry delivering day-old chicks, Charlie moved to Maple Leaf Chicks, the sole distributor of Shaver 579 layers. He worked as Farm Manager on their layer breeder farm at Outlane on the outskirts of Huddersfield before progressing to field and sales support for the UK, representing Maple Leaf worldwide.

Charlie continued his long relationship with Maple Leaf despite returning to the family farm in the early 1990s. He built his first free range layer unit holding 5,000 layers, converted from a redundant cage unit bought, dismantled, and moved onto the farm, supplying eggs to Barradale.

He became a long-standing producer to Oakland Farm Eggs but recently moved to Yorkshire Farmhouse.

Charlie was a fifth-generation farmer who purchased the family farm from his parents, Donald and Anne. With the unrelenting support from his wife, Gill, they continued to expand the family business, which today has 46,000 layers with potential in the future for a further 16,000. Charlie had a Midas touch with pullets and continued to draw on his experience at Maple Leaf Chicks to raise all his birds.

Charlie recently opened a coffee shop on the farm as a new venture with his two sons, Jack and Adam, with Adam's wife Alex managing the shop.

Charlie was a long-standing, level-headed, dedicated, influential, and valued BFREPA Council member. He played a crucial role in the first BFREPA Conference, was a staunch founding supporter of the BFREPA costings model, and was a member of the BFREPA steering group. Charlie’s production experience was invaluable, and his input into BFREPA responses to Government & industry played no small part in helping expand the influence of the Association and improve free range egg production standards to what they are today. Charlie’s cheerful nature, gentle determination and knowledge will be greatly missed.

Charlie's funeral will be held at 1.30pm on 16th May, at St Paul’s church in Drighlington, followed by the wake at the Manor Golf Club, Drighlington.