Chirk Trout Farm was taken over by the Simpson family in 2000, who immediately started renovating the site and expanding the business.
The Farm Shop
The trout farm, with its earth bottomed trout pools fed by spring water, was the basis for the business but the family saw the potential for much more.
The first addition was a farm shop in 2002.
This was followed by the smokery the following year, which allowed them to smoke their own trout but also develop a range of smoked products for sale in the shop and at farmers’ markets and food festivals across Shropshire, Cheshire and north Wales.
Family business
Three generations of the family live on site in two houses: Richard manages the trout farm and smokery.
He also supplies fisheries with live fish and delivering rainbow, blue, golden, brown and tiger trout to fisheries all over the country.
Quality food
Free range hens at Chirk Trout Farm
Over the years the range has expanded to include a range of meals that make the most of the farm and smokery’s products.
These include a delicious smoked salmon lasagne, a fish pie and of course the famous Chirk Trout Farm smoked trout sausage.
Meanwhile Richard’s mum Nerys does the cooking for the farm shop and the various farmers’ markets and food festivals throught the year.
The site also includes a fruit plot which Richard’s wife Rachael uses to make her own brand of jams and preserves using only natural ingredients.
So Chirk Trout Farm truly is a family business!
