Penderyn, the only whisky distillery in Wales, only opened its doors in 2000. Before that the Welsh had dabbled, lets say, in  whisky production but their heritage for making fire-water is no where near as substantive as their Celtic cousins in Scotland or Ireland. So is Welsh whisky really any good or a pale imitation of the ‘real’ thing?

In in 1705 the Williams family of Pembrokshire owned a distillery in Wales before emigrating to the USA where they went on to help found the Kentucky Whisky industry. It took a further 300 years for Penderyn to come along and open another still in Wales, but was the wait worth it?

I was given a small bottle of Penderyn Single Malt Madeira Whisky at the recent Insider Made in the UK awards dinner but waited until I got home to give it a whirl. I do like a whisky but tend to go for heavily peated Islay whisky’s like Laphroigh or Ardbeg. The Penderyn is obviously nothing like any of these brands but on first tasting it went down quite nicely.

Full bodied would be the clichéd but accurate way to describe it, absolutely crammed with flavour – oh, and lot of heat. The taste is of crisp ginger, very fruity and super creamy. The whisky is said to have a Madeira finish. I am not sure that I got those flavours at all but I did like it.

Would I buy a bottle? I have to be honest and say I would not. It is just not my style of whisky. That being said I is not just a novelty whisky, as you might expect. I would certainly rate it much higher than a large percentage of Scottish offerings. I would say try it and judge for yourself.

If you want to know more here is the Penderyn story:

– James

We are looking to raise over £5,000 at our British Family Fayre this year to support the British Family Foundation.  If you or your business would like to support this fantastic cause we have come up with a great way of doing this.

If you donate £100 or over to the British Family Foundation we will give you a free advert in our British Family Fayre event guide. We can promise that 100% of your donation will be given direct to the charity to help young people get into British manufacturing and farming.

We are expecting over 6,000 visitors at our event this year and will be printing between 3,000 and 4,ooo copies of our event guide to give away free on the 3oth August.

If you would like to donate please get in touch: james@britishfamily.co.uk

– James & Emily

Adrian from Deltech Precision Audio and I on the Made in Britain Stand

I have just got back from the International Festival of Business where I have been manning the stand on behalf the Made in Britain Campaign. I am pleased to report that I have met so many very proud UK manufacturers, of all sizes, over the last few day. While the exhibition was a little slow at times I have had the pleasure of shaking the hands of many of the people that keep Britain making stuff.

Our very smart stand was located directly opposite the Bloodhound supersonic car. So we had a pretty good pitch.

On the evening of the Monday night there was the UK manufacturing awards and black tie dinner, presented by the hugely entertaining Giles Brandreth. A slightly embarrassing precursor to the evening was my inability to tie my dickiebow. After about 30 minutes watching Youtube demos and swearing at my refection in the mirror I finally gave up and had to call the reception of the hotel for help. The only person they could find that could tie a bow-tie was the chef. The chef, in full whites, then proceeded to dress me like a mother on their kids first day of school. It was a slightly surreal sight.

Me after being man -handled by a chef. Don’t scrub up too bad eh?

During dinner I was sat at a table with, the eventual UK manufacturer of the year winners,  The Cambridge Satchel Company. There were also a few great guys from Sovex (who make industrial conveyor belts) and Caparo Steel (who manufacture steel) both of whom were also up for awards. So, all in all there was a pretty good atmosphere at our table.

After far too much scouse hospitality we all staggered back to the hotel and I hit my bed at around 1.30am ready for a 6am start in the morning to get back to the exhibition.

All in all I did not see much of Liverpool but certainly saw enough to think that I would like to go back. Hopefully, we  will managed to sign up to more businesses to join as member of the made in Britain campaign. Time will tell.

– James

If you have not tried rapeseed oil before please do give it a go but, … it is not like olive oil and therefore may well have a taste that you don’t expect. I know that was my first reaction when I tried some. Over time and many bottles later however, I have come to rely on it. It is just so versatile and out performs olive oil in so many ways.

To show you some of the differences that the same little seed can create James and I have done a very small scale and rather un-scientific test to come up with our recommendations on how to use some of our local Kent oils as well as some more national ones.

In the line up we created we tested;

•   Pure Kent Oil
•   Hill Farm Oil
•   Quex Kentish Oil
•   Waitrose Leckford Estate Oil
•   Farrington’s Mellow Yellow Oil
•   Waitrose Vegetable Oil

Many may be suprised to find Waitrose bog-standard veg oil in our list. However, did you know that your common vegatable oil is in fact made from rapeseeds? We wanted to see what the difference was from those oils which retail at between £3.50 – £5.50 per bottle (500ml) to one which is in essence from the same raw ingredient but is sold at £1.25 for a 1 litre bottle.

Anyway back to the unscientific test. The first thing we compared was the colour. Now you can see for yourself that between the cold pressed oils there was very little in it. However, from the line up we had we agreed that the richest egg yolk colour went to Pure Kent Oil. I will add a note here that the bottom right container had the vegetable oil in which had neither colour (of any real worth), aroma or flavour.

Next we moved on to aroma. Here there was a bit more to choose between as each brand really did have a unique scent. The strongest aroma was definitely from Farrington’s Mellow Yellow oil. The scent was clear and very reminiscent of the flowers that the seeds come from. A close second for strength of aroma was Hill Farm. The others were more subtle in their scent, not necessarily a bad thing if you don’t want it to overpower food.

Lastly it was on to taste. Now this is something very personal, and I accept that just as not everyone likes strong olive oil, not everyone will enjoy the taste of a strong rapeseed oil. However, not all the brands we tasted were equally strong in flavour and some were surprisingly creamy. The Pure Kent Oil was just this, very creamy and slightly nutty in flavour. In my opinion it would be a lovely salad oil as it is not overpowering and the creamy taste would work well with most salads. The Hill Farm oil was exactly as described on the bottle, subtle and nutty again this would make a good dressing as it’s flavour would compliment other ingredients. Next was the Waitrose Leckford Estate. This was a very mild and creamy taste that would make a good first try at a rapeseed oil as it is not too fierce. After this we came to Farrington’s which after winning hands down the aroma test delivered a real punch once again in the taste department. This one is not for the faint hearted but drizzled on steak or over cooked vegetables would give a wonderful nutty and pungent flavour. The last of the cold pressed oils was from Quex named Kentish Oil. This oil was a real surprise as it had a completely different and more ‘complex’ flavour than any of the others. This oil had a real peppery note and would be a great dipping oil.

Our conclusion:

• Best colour: Pure Kent Oil
• Best aroma: Farrington’s Mellow Yellow
• Best for salads: Pure Kent Oil
• Best for meat: Farrington’s Mellow Yellow
• Best for dipping: Quex named Kentish Oil

So I suppose that the conclusion would have to be that all our British rapeseed oils are great and all have their uses and purposes. Even the vegetable oil could have uses for shallow and deep frying as it’s flavourless and colourless properties come into use. The health benefits are pretty great with all the cold pressed oils, as they offer good levels of Omega 3,6 & 9 and are a natural source of Vitamin E.

So if you are a rapeseed oil novice try one you will be astonished how good it is, or better still come to the British Family Fayre on 30th August at Squerryes Court, Westerham and try Farrington’s oils, vinegrettes and amazing mayonnaise!

If you have a favourite brand please let us know in the comments section below. 

– Emily

The Mail on Sunday are running an article about how Peacocks are selling a maternity t-shirt with the words ‘made in Britain’ emblazoned on the front, while the shirt itself is made in India (see here). What is great about this article is that it tells of the anger and dismay from a consumer perspective.

Those that follow our blog will know that it is a bugbear of our that many products are promoted because of their British credentials but are often found to abroad. The fashion industry is one that suffers most from this. Brands like Jack Wills and TM Lewin are keen to show off a proud UK heritage but in fact their products have little to do with Britain as far as manufacturing is concerned.  When I saw the image of the £10 T-shirt from Peacocks I had to firstly wonder who in there right mind would wear that fashion disaster and secondly did anyone really believe that it was made in the UK because of the rather hackneyed slogan. We have seen far more deceptive non-British products than this on sale (our ironing board for instance).

Either way, what is great to see is that consumers are making a fuss. It tells the retailers in no uncertain terms that we do care about what is made in Britain. I predict a lot more of these types of stories in the media before the year is out. Retailers beware!

– Emily

The International Festival in Liverpool is soon to be drawing to a close but not before the Made in the UK conference and awards, begin held at the BT convention centre located on Liverpool s famous waterfront. The Made in the UK part of the IFB, being organised by Insider magazine, is being held over the 21st and 22nd of July where I will be there manning the exhibition stand and attending the awards dinner in my capacity as a director of the Made in Britain Campaign. Needless to say, if you are in the area please come and say hello.

The Made in Britain campaign is working hard to establish a definitive mark for British made goods and since we launched in January we have gained over 350 members, which include some very well known names including Marshall amplification and Mathmos. It is anticipated that we will have closer to 1000 members by the end of this year. So, if you are a British manufacturer, of any size, and have yet to sign up, please join the revolution! Your membership will make a big difference.

Anyway, the IFB has been a 2 month long event in and around the Liverpool area designed to attract business to and from the UK. It has attracted visitors from around the world and David Cameron and his gang have even made the odd appearance or two. However, having been monitoring the event in the press, it has been very little publicised, especially down here in the South East. This is arguably the biggest business event happening in the world right now but I have seen little more than a couple of lines in the papers about it. You cannot help but think that has it been happening in London it would have received far more attention. However, I for one am looking forward to spending a long weekend in the beautiful city of Liverpool.

One more thing that I am very excited about is that our stand at the exhibition is directly opposite the Bloodhound supersonic car which is being displayed  as a centerpiece to the event. For those that don’t know about this British engineering marvel I wrote about it here. Expect some very excited selfie Tweets of me and the car during the event.

On the final evening of the exhibition there is a swanky awards dinner with loads of gongs being given out. The main award will undoubtedly be British manufacturer of the year and, dont tell anyone, but I will be rooting for Ebac to win.

Whatever the outcome of the awards it is sure to be a ‘hard days night’ in Liverpool on the campaign trail for made in Britain. [good pun, eh?]

– James

Are your ideas of the British manufacturing industry stuck in the past? The populist image of manufacturing might look something like poverty stricken L.S Lowery painting, or wear a over-sized industrialist top hat like Brunel, but things have changed a lot.  Modern British manufacturing offers a positive working environment and what is more it has the highest average earnings across the whole economy.

Yes, you read that correctly. You are likely to be paid more if you work in manufacturing than if you work in the service sector! This is according to a new report by the EEF as part of their, somewhat ineffective, Make It Britain campaign. See here>>>

This latest revelation will no doubt come as a surprise to many… including me. The only question I have now is ‘how do I apply?’.

– James

The Bradshaw family from Kent, who spent much of 2013 in the headlines with their campaign to get the country to buy British, are now keen to locate the 5 women that inspired their campaign.

In 1968  five Surbiton secretaries influenced the nation to say “I’m backing Britain”. Valerie White, Joan Southwell, Carol Ann Fry, Christine French and Brenda Mumford made a gesture to work an extra 30 unpaid minutes each day in the ventilation factory in which they worked. This simple act caused the country, for the briefest of moments, to come together and to support the UK’s domestic industry.  The resulting campaign snowballed, sweeping through the UK and generating support of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, a mass of Union Flag merchandise and even a hit record by Bruce Forsyth!

50 years later and the Bradshaw family, James (35), Emily (30) and son Lucan (3) tried to ignite a similar level of patriotic outpouring to support Britain’s long-troubled manufacturing sector. While they failed to get Brucey back into a recording studio, their efforts to live on only British goods were widely covered in the national press and regularly drew parallels with the efforts of these young office workers. 

The Bradshaws efforts have continued since the successful conclusion to their 12 month challenge earlier this year. They have been heavily involved in the roll-out of the new Made in Britain marque, organised  the British Family Fayre celebration in Kent and are about to launch a charity that promotes careers in manufacturing to young people. However, they are now keen to locate the 5 young women that inspired them to try to get the country backing Britain once again.

Have you seen these women?

“These ladies inspired a nation and it felt to us like we experienced a small part of the maelstrom that they must have been a part of.  We would love to catch up with some, or if possible all, of these ladies and see how their campaign affected their lives and whether they have any advice on how we can continue to grow this movement toward re-investing in the future of Britain’s manufacturing” says Emily.

Where do you start looking for 5 ladies who are are now likely to be in their 60’s or 70’s. “There is a lot of contemporary press about their campaign but very little about the women themselves. Our first port of call is social media. We have been seeing if Facebook or Twitter could produce any leads to these women but so far nothing” says James.

If you have any information that could help the Bradshaw’s track down these nearly forgotten heroines please get in touch through their blog www.britishfamily.co.uk.

Press release distributed on the 26th June 2014 – for immediate distribution

Download a PDF version here>>>