The judging panel of Countryside Alliance North East Regional Director Richard Dodd along with Verity Johnson and Pat Harvey, chose the following from a very competitive field and Richard went out to present the winners with their certificates and exclusive aprons.

Best Local Food Retailer
Stewart & Co Fine Food
36 Brentwood Avenue
Jesmond
Newcastle
Northumberland
NE23DH
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Richard says: “Stewart & Co has only been open five months and has taken a local farm shop/deli to one of the classier parts of Newcastle. The shop has an excellent display of packed local meats, including game and many home made lines alongside local products of organic flour etc. Stewart & Co deserves to succeed and we are delighted to give them the nod in our competition”.

Best Village Shop / PO
David Carr
Corner Shop
Longframlington
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE65
01665 570241



Richard says: “For the second year in a row David is a Best Rural Retailer winner! Two wins in a row are testament to the hard work and enthusiasm that he injects into his shop, especially for the benefit of his many elderly and immobile customers, for whom he runs a free prescription delivery service. Nothing is too much bother - when we called they were making 16 hampers for the local vet. Last year when we called Angie Vaux had been to Tesco Extra in Newcastle and could not find 3 products but got them at David Carr’s local corner shop!”

Best Diversification
High House Farm Brewery
Matfen
Newcastle upon Tyne
Northumberland
NE20 0RG
www.highhousefarmbrewery.co.uk
info@highhousefarmbrewery

Richard says: “This is a wonderful story of creeping, walking then running. The farm has always grown malting barley and has a collection of buildings that would have been easy to convert into houses, which would have been very lucrative. Instead they developed this small brewery, as it was a passion of Stephen’s, which ran for a couple of years slowly expanding. The beers are named after the sheep dogs on the farm. Expansion has been driven by the arrival of a new wife with a marketing background and the opening of Hadrian’s Wall footpath, close to the farm. It now has a visitor centre, café and bar recently opened in September. They run regular brewery tours and have a brewery shop. I think this is a major contender for a national win!” http://www.highhousefarmbrewery.co.uk/

Best Traditional Business
Robinsons the butcher, fruiterer and café
Front Street
Wingate
Co. Durham
TS28 5AA

Richard says: “This is now into its fifth generation and has expanded all ways in order to keep going. When Blair came to power there were 15 slaughterhouses in Co Durham - now there are only 2 and Robinsons is one of them. They also run an extensive catering business that operates from the site doing balls, funerals and outside catering. When we called, a local farmer was inspecting his cattle that had been slaughtered that morning - a truly local community business that employs 12 people”