Young entrepreneur James Ingle’s free-range eggs are so popular he’s even taking orders from the royal household in London.

James’s dad, Matthew Ingle, who is chief executive of Keighley-based Howdens Kitchens, regularly carries two or three dozen eggs in his briefcase when he makes business trips to the capital.

And he makes a detour to see 23-year-old daughter Charlotte, who works for the royal family, in order to make the special delivery.

James, who has recently opened a new farm shop at Carleton, said Charlotte and her pals couldn’t get enough of his tasty eggs.

“My sister and her friends in London much prefer the taste of my eggs. They have a lovely flavour and a deep yellow yoke,” he said.

The 21-year-old, who lives with his parents at Hetton, has a 30-strong brood of hens, having started out with just four in the garden, and now he’s busy with plans to expand again.

He also sells them from his farm shop at Carleton, which opened in April, stocking local produce such as roast ham from Cross Hills butcher Peter Whitaker, goats cheese and milk from Yellison Farm at Carleton, smoked fish from Bleikers smoke house at Glasshouses and meat from Steven Crabtree’s farm on the Bolton Abbey estate.

James, whose hero is Yorkshire-born chef Marco Pierre White, spent two years studying agriculture and farming at the Royal Agricultural College in Gloucestershire and last year spent three months training at the Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland.

James says he believes there is great scope for opening other traditional-style farm shops in Dales villages.

“I would like to open two or three more to provide a hub for village life and help keep communities alive and stop them becoming like ghost towns,” he said.

James also plans to make door-to-door deliveries and stock a range of his home-made ready meals.