Illings Farm has been in the Ray family since 1921, when it was bought by Harry Ray, who moved here from Cotterstock, in Northamptonshire. He came with his wife, 3 sons, and their dairy herd. At that time the farm was mainly grassland. The Rays are the oldest established farming family in the village, and the farm is currently farmed by Mark, who is the 4th generation of Rays in Broughton. It was previously farmed by Harry Ray, his son Alfred Ray, and his son John Ray (who still helps out around the farm, does his milk round 2 days a week and can often be found in his poly tunnels!!).

Illings Farm is by today's standards a very small enterprise at 39 hectares. The land is mainly heavy clay, and today we grow milling wheat for bread making and oil seed rape as a break crop. We also have some ancient ridge and furrow grassland.
Previously the farm has also grown barley, potatoes and sugar beet.

Over the years cattle, pigs, hens, a milking herd and a milk round have all been important sources of income for the farming business, in addition to the arable work. Today the grassland is let out for horse grazing and Mark also works part time as an accountant.

We aim to integrate modern farming techniques with caring for the wildlife, along side providing access for the public to enjoy our farm. We have retained a large number of hedges and trees on the farm, and have relatively small fields, so it is not a typical East Anglian "wheat prairie" farm.

In 2001 we planted a small wood and rejuvinated an old pond adjacent to the farm yard to celebrate the millenium. This is now well established.

Modern day machinery is very expensive to buy and maintain, so we use a local contractor from Oldhurst (W S Campbell & Son) to do our combining and primary cultivations, and then undertake sub-soiling, mole draining, power harrowing, drilling, rolling, spraying and fertiliser spreading ourselves.