We are pleased to announce that our auction in aid of the Prince’s Trust is now open: http://www.britishfamilyfayre.co.uk/charity-auction/

Our Prince’s Trust auction is made up entirely of generously donated items. The auction itself will be held in two parts. Firstly there will be a silent auction made up of online bids and secondly a live auction to be held on 31st August. The highest bidder for each lot from the online stage will then go on to be a sealed bid on the day of the British Family Fayre. Should there not be a higher bid on the day of the live auction the highest sealed bid will be win the auction.

Still time to donate:

There are some fantastic British made goods donated by some very generous British businesses. We are still accepting donations so please feel free to get involved if you can. Get in touch.

Here is my leather work on display at PUG.

I posted some time ago that the combination of being recently unemployed and inspiration gained from the manufacturers we have met has meant I have been going into production.

I have made my own leather goods for a while but recently decided, with some time on my hands, to become a manufacturer myself. Yes, this is very small scale, and not particularly financially lucrative, but is still very rewarding.

So far I have been selling mostly through my Folksy store, and the odd local craft fair, but have now just set up my own independent website (www.rawleather.co.uk). However, what is perhaps a little more interesting is that I have also begun stocking my first retailer. The Pug on the (www.pugonthesquare.co.uk) is based in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire and is a shop/gallery of purely British made goods. They have an ever changing selection of fantastic quality items and I was very honoured when they asked me to provide them with a few pieces.

Owner David is particularly passionate and supportive of British made goods and certainly a kindred spirit in that regard. So, if you find yourself  in or around Gloucester  in the next few weeks please go and visit this unique boutique specialising in fine British craftsmanship… and some of my stuff. 😉

– James

British farming has had a turbulent year but recent events have also highlighted the importance knowing where your food comes from. This has resulted in unprecedented backing from consumers. Now the NFU is urging the public to help turn around a decline in self-sufficiency that means the UK produces just 62 per cent of its own food.

The NFU state that our current self-sufficiency rate means that today, August 14, is the day when British food supplies would run out if all the food produced in Britain in a year was stored and eaten from January 1. This means that, had everyone in the country replicated our project to buy British we would today be in a position where we would be struggling to find our next meal.

The NFU is determined to reverse this trend. Evidence demonstrates that the will is there. A One Poll survey has revealed that 78 per cent of consumers thought supermarkets should stock more British food and 42 per cent said they were more likely to buy more traceable food produced on British farms. And farmers are ready to rise to the challenge to produce more food sustainably.

NFU President Peter Kendall said the decline in self-sufficiency in many sectors should be a warning signal that something is wrong.

“To think that today’s date would signal the time when our domestic food supply runs out is frankly alarming”, said Mr Kendall. “It says to me that we must act.

“As an industry we have had a challenging decade but the realisation has dawned that as a nation we can’t simply go around the world chasing the cheapest deal for our food.

“So, instead we need to look closer to home. Right across the board farmers have a fantastic natural capacity to produce more British food, given the right market signals and the confidence to invest. We have the right technologies to produce more from less with precision farming helping to target fertiliser and crop protection products within centimetres. Laser technology can even pinpoint an individual weed, improving accuracy and efficiency. Crops grown under cover help to lengthen the season for our British fruits. But there is more to do to empower our farmers to enable them to make the most of our natural resources and feed our growing nation.

“I want to know our government is really getting to grips with its food vision and ensuring that sustainable, productive farming is across all government departments. Let’s create an environment which really means farming businesses can invest. Let’s address market failure and iron-out volatility to enable the entire food chain to grow supply.

“We have all learned the lessons of long, complex supply chains and retailers are all telling me that they want to work with British farmers to ensure their shelves are stocked with more British produce. We currently import around £37.6bn of food and drink. We are a trading nation but at a time of economic uncertainty a strong food producing industry is essential.

“Consumers are increasingly showing their support for British farming and are our best ally. I would ask to them to continue showing their support by demanding of their local supermarket, restaurant, or MP – what are you doing to Back British Farming?

-James

Triumph T10 (Tina)

Those that have followed our buying British campaign will know that, about 4 months ago, I bought a new Triumph Explorer motorcycle. However, I also own another Triumph and have done for about 3 years. My other ‘iron horse’ is a little known 1960’s Triumph scooter called a T10 (originally called a Tina). In the 3 years that I have owned this 99cc beast I have been tinkering with her on and off (mostly off) trying to get  her back on the road.

The reason I mention this little scooter is because the two bikes I now own epitomise Britain’s engineering  at the times that they were made. The Triumph Tina was developed in the early swinging 60’s as a proposed antidote to the burgeoning cool of the Italian Vespa’s and Lambretta’s flooding the U.K market at the time. It launched tp a flood of publicity and at great expense, which included a campaign fronted by non other than Cliff Richard. Basically Triumph invested every penny they had in bringing it to market but in their eagerness to beat the Italians at their own game they had one issue… it did not work.

I am sorry to say that the Triumph Tina rolled off the production line with an innovative, but deadly, new automatic clutch. This newly patented, British engineered part had a tendency to seize unexpected at speed. This resulted in numerous magazine test riders and members of Joe Public being thrown off their seats. This lead to an extensive product recall that cost Triumph dearly. They tried in vain to relaunch the Tina two years later as the T10 (the one that I have). Firstly to correct the clutch issues and secondly to rebrand it – the Triumph brand had become a bit of a laughing stock for producing the female-orientated scooter. But this remedial action came a little too late and the Triumph T10 and it’s failure could likely be blamed for sending the firm into administration.

Throughout the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s Britain produced swathes of poorly constructed vehicles, the legacy of which arguably tarnished the reputation of our engineering sector until very recently. Britain now now produces more cars than Germany and is second only to France in the league of European car production. Britain’s engineering has bounced back but sadly not quick enough to keep many of the well know British brands under U.K. ownership.

Thankfully though the Triumph brand has endured. Despite a tumultuous recent history, they are stronger than ever and they certainly deserve their current position as market leaders for motorcycles. My Triumph Explorer has the most outstanding build quality of any bike I have owned (which is a lot!!!). In fact this particular model boast 10,000 miles between services, which is one one of the main reasons that I went for this model. The company that built my Explorer is certainly a different animal to that which built the T10 50 years ago. Triumph’s future as a British brand is strong and they fly the flag well for British engineering across the globe.

However, if there is one way in which my little T10 wins over the monsterous 1200cc Explorer it is in it’s charm. The T10 has bags of character and is totally lovable. But they both have their place in my garage; one as a useful and reliable tool the other as a quirky but beautiful machine… that is destined hurt me.

As an aside: when I first bought my T10, as a whim, of Ebay 3 years ago I found no information online about these little scoots. So, I built and now manage the worlds first and now biggest (because there is only one) website and forum dedicated to Triumph scooters – www.triumphscooters.co.uk. This forum now boasts members from around the globe and, in 3 years, has helped preserve 100’s of the scooters from the scrap heap. I am proud to say that this site that I created is helping to preserve an important piece of British engineering history.

– James

Before anyone panics I’m not talking about a water drought, or not one that I know about, but one of English and Welsh wine. Not a crisis for everyone but when your choice is limited, a lack of availability of English wine does become a bit of an issue.

When we started out our project there were at least 3 English still wines available in our local Waitrose as well as 3 sparkling ones. That gave me quite a choice and although they cost a bit more than I would normally pay they were well worth it. I would not qualify as a connoisseur by any stretch but I know what I like when I taste it and I really enjoy English wine.

So you can imagine my surprise when I went into a Waitrose near where I work in March to get a bottle of English white  for a dinner party and was told they were having supply problems, and weren’t expecting a delivery until OCTOBER! I thought that this was something that  would just pass and that as the demand for all things British increased there would surely be a resurrection in the wine chain into the supermarkets. We have tried ‘British’ wine before but I must admit it is not for me, as it is very sweet and quite watery all in one. NOTE: British wine and English wine are not the same thing. British wine is made from imported grape concentrate. 

So we find that the only way to remedy the drought is to visit the vineyards themselves. Not a problem as they are always lovely places to visit but not exactly making it easy to choose and enjoy English wine. We are planning a visit to Denbies at some point as we haven’t visited them yet and are told they offer a great visitor experience.

More than a good day out though I would really like to see the supermarket return a bit of choice to their consumers and offer up an English (or Welsh depending on where you are) wine to go along with the wine from almost everywhere else in the world. We make great wine here and it is time we were able to get our hands on the stuff to enjoy at home.

– Emily

There are not many things in my life that I can say I am particularly fussy over but I do like nice nails. Well, what girl doesn’t?

When we started our project to buy only British I had a good supply of nail varnishes, files and nail varnish remover and, up until now, this has done me pretty well. Then about 2 weeks ago, I went to paint my nails for a wedding we were going to and to my horror what came out on the little brush was more like a glue consistency than a liquid.

I had looked through our local Boots earlier on in the year and had found nothing. Therefore you can imagine my surprise and excitement when at a concession stand, filled with every colour nail varnish you could ask for, I turned over the bottle and saw Made in England!

Needless to say I have now acquired 6 new bottles to hopefully get me through the last few months of our project. The Models Own range is huge, the staff were super and best of all it’s British!

As for varnish remover, I have also found the Enliven range of products have a great remover which is 250ml for less than £1.  You cannot say fairer than that!

When we began our project one thing that we struggled with was a substitution for olive oil. Olive oil is not commercially available in the UK… yet. We understand that may be set to change – At Huggit’s Farm,overlooking Romney Marsh in Kent, they have ambitions to produce British Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Strangely, we have also struggled finding pure British vegetable or sunflower oil so that leaves us with one alternative… rapeseed oil.

Before we started our project we had never used rapeseed oil in our cooking so were keen to see how it holds up in our cooking compared to our regular olive oil. Our first issue was where to buy it. In January we had difficultly finding any supermarket which actually stocked the stuff but something remarkable has happened since that time. Now all the major supermarkets now stock a healthy supply of rapeseed oil and our local Waitrose stocks no less than 5 different types including an own brand bottle.

Rapeseed oil does not come cheap though, it comes in at a similar price point as a premium extra virgin olive oil, so you certainly cannot get too liberal with the stuff but with half the amount of saturated fat it is a healthier option. It also has higher levels Omega 3, 6 and 9… whatever that means.

Rapeseed oil is billed in the culinary press as the next big thing and sales are up by 11.5 per cent on last year,  but I suspect most of that is down to our personal expenditure.

If you want to find out more about rapeseed oil the good people of Farrington’s Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil are coming to our British Family Fayre event (This also makes them our favorite rapeseed oil producers!).

Press Release – for immediate distribution:

The British Family Fayre – A FREE Family Day Out Celebrating British Manufacturing & Production

The British Family Fayre is the ambitious brain child of James and Emily Bradshaw, who have hit the headlines consistently throughout the year for their project to survive, as a family, on only British goods and services.

The fayre, organised in just 3 months, brings together over 40 stalls by well known British brands around the country to celebrate just how great British manufacturing and farming is. The businesses themselves are coming to engage with families to tell their story in a fun and child friendly way. For example; Lush Cosmetics are giving a unique, hands-on and messy insight into making some of their products, Kings of Shaves will be giving the dads shaving demonstrations and the Derwent Pencil Company will be running workshops with world renowned children’s author and illustrator Shoo Rayner. Other workshops are provided by businesses from across the UK and in every sector of UK production, including; Cahoonas UK Ltd, Comins Tea House, Deltec Precision Audio, Doulton Drinking Water Filters, Ebac Ltd, Farrington’s Mellow Yellow, Gopack Ltd, Great British Sauce Co., Helen Gordon, Jacksons Fencing, Nelsons Brewery, Roadii Firegrills, Superstitchers , The Shave Doctor , Mr Singh’s Sauce, Tudor Oak , W Hamond & The Original Whitby Jet Shop.

As well as the interactive stalls there will also be a diverse range of entertainment from around the British Isles including; a welcome by Traditional Highland pipers, the 30+ strong members of the London Welsh Rugby Club Choir and an all British set by the phenomenal Rock Choir. The event is also supported by The National Farmers Union (NFU) who will be bringing their own fun, but educational, entertainment including animals and farm based activities aimed at entertaining the kids.

Additional to all of this, the event is all in a good cause and will be attended by The Prince’s Trust to celebrate 30 years helping young people in enterprise in the UK. The centre piece of this will be a live auction of products donated by British industry. This will include a British made Union flag signed by celebrities and eminent business people, such as Mayor of London – Boris Johnson.

With just a few weeks until the big day, they are still adding more to this fantastic line up. See the website to keep up to date – www.britishfamilyfayre.co.uk

Details:
British Family Fayre – 31^st August 2013 from 11am until 6pm.
Entrance Price – FREE!
Squerryes Court, Westerham, Kent, TN16 1SJ. (25 miles from London, Junction 5 or 6 of the M25)
Website – www.britishfamilyfayre.co.uk

About the Bradshaws and their one family campaign to help British manufacturing…

In January 2013 the Bradshaws, a normal British family from a small town in Kent, started their New Year’s resolution, which sparked an unexpected chain of events. They set themselves the challenge that for one year they would see if it was possible for a family to live entirely on British goods and services. This simple act has generated national headlines, features on TV and international media attention. The family blog about their adventures buying only British on their website; www.britishfamily.co.uk.

The British Family would like to thank Lincoln West for their assistance in organising this great day. 

James (34), Emily(29) and Lucan(3) are available for interview and comment as are the businesses and organisations involved. They appeal to the members of the press to help them make this event go off with a bang.

Contact: James Bradshaw – jbradshaw@london.com

Free press photos and resources are available for download here: 

Download a pdf copy of this release here: PressRelease_BFFayrePromo

-END-

We were featured on ITN news on 29th July 2013.

This is a recording of that feature. Apologies for the quality of this recording.

It is interesting how the media attention towards our project to only buy British seems to come in waves, and it feels like we are bang in the centre of another press maelstrom. We are constantly surprised by the level of attention but, what is more, we have struggled to  keep a our wardrobe looking fresh. The cost of buying British clothes means that we are generally wearing the same stuff in most of the TV and newspapers we do.

Anyway, we thought it would be nice to talk you through our ensemble as featured in The Sunday Times this past weekend:

Emily:

Jumper – Liv

Skirt – Home made by Emily

Shoes (not pictured) – Yull

James:

Top – Henry Hunt base layer

Trousers – These are not British made. Basically, we are struggling to find/afford British made trousers.

Belt (not pictured)- Made by James

Shoes (not pictured)- Barker leather slip-ons

Socks (not pictured) – Marko Johns

Underpants (mercifully not pictured) – Cahoonas

Lucan:

Top – Fieldlife long sleeve T-shirt

Shorts – Alpha Betty

Shoes – Daisy Roots Union Jack slippers

If you missed the piece in the Sunday Times you can read it (and our other press) on our press page here.