The Norfolk Black, also known as the Black SpanishorBlack Turkey, is a British breedofdomestic turkey. It is thought to derive from birds taken to Britain from Spain, where they had arrived with Spanish explorers returning from the New World.[3]: 358 [7]: 345 [8][9][10]
It is generally considered the oldest turkey breed in the UK.
Turkeys were brought to Europe by early conquistadors returning from the New World, and were introduced to Britain – probably from Spain – in the early sixteenth century.[11] According to the Chronicle of the Kings of EnglandofRichard Baker of 1643, this was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Henry VIII, or about 1524.[12]: 328 [13]: 298 William Strickland is often credited with bringing them.[8] Blackbirds had occasionally been seen among New World flocks of wild birds; European breeders selectively bred for this colour.[14]: 227 In England, turkey farming was carried out mainly in East Anglia, particularly in Norfolk.[3]: 358
A 1998 census conducted by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy found that only 200 Black Spanish turkeys remained in the United States, which just 15 different breeders were raising.[16] To help with conservation efforts, the Accokeek Foundation helped reintroduce this bird to the Potomac Rivertidewater region by sharing breeding stock with other historical museums and local farmers.[17] A rafter of Black Spanish turkeys is currently being preserved by the Heritage Breed Livestock Conservation Program within the National Colonial Farm at Piscataway Park to increase public awareness of this threatened breed.[18]
^ abTurkeys. Poultry Club of Great Britain. Archived 9 November 2018.
^ abcBlack Turkey: Ark of taste. Bra, Cuneo: Fondazione Slow Food per la Biodiversità Onlus/Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. Accessed January 2021.
About his fifteenth year, it happened that divers things were newly brought into England, whereupon this Rhyme was made: Turkeys, Carps, Hoppes, Piccarel, and Beer, Came into ENGLAND all in one year.
