30/04/2025 Latest News
A Norfolk auctioneer where a young Bernard Matthews bought his first turkeys is set to hold its first live poultry auction for 30 years.
Keys Auctioneers in Aylsham is holding a single vendor poultry auction on Saturday 10th May, which will see around 300 head of chickens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, peafowl, turkeys and quail go under the hammer, along with 50 lots of new poultry equipment.
On the rostrum will be auctioneer Tim Blyth, whose grandfather Geoffrey Key held the firm’s first poultry auction in 1953. Keys quickly became one of the UK’s largest poultry auctions, with up to 50,000 head being sold each week by the end of the 1950s.
“It is a real pleasure to be holding a live poultry auction again after so many years,” said Mr Blyth, who is managing director of Keys. “The business has developed in so many ways over more than seven decades, but next Saturday’s sale is really going back to our roots.
“We have kept up the tradition of our annual Christmas poultry sale every year since 1953, but this will be our first live poultry sale for 30 years.”
The sale takes place on Saturday 10th May at 10.30am at keys Aylsham saleground. Viewing is from 9am on the day of the sale.
The sale is being held under APHA guidelines, with all birds from on holding, with strictly no other birds on site.
Founded by Geoffrey Key in 1953 on the site that Keys still occupies today in the North Norfolk market town of Aylsham, the business started as a small livestock market selling mainly poultry. By the end of the 1950s, these sales had become some of the largest of their type in the country.