It was another early start and as we left the Best Western we had been staying at the evening before I took one final glance around the room. It struck me that our little family really can destroy a hotel room. In fact Keith Moon would have been proud of the state in which we left that poor room. Anyway we made our escape and travelled the short drive to Totnes. We arrived in the town for 9.30, as reasonable time most would assume. However, for the townsfolk of Totnes this is obviously not the case. We found most of the shops closed, some until 12.00, and with our tight deadlines it meant that we missed much of the fantastic shopping that was available.

We made our way straight to Conker which is located on the High Street. Our first mission was to get Lucan sized up and get his shoes ordered. Conker make all of their shoes bespoke and to your own specifications of style, size and colour/s. For Lucan we chose a pair of classic t-bar shoes with a buckle. We wanted to let Lucan choose his own colour but he insisted on pink. In the end we got him dark blue with red accents and black stitching.

Once the formalities of fitting were over we met Simon, the owner. He bought the business about 7 years ago having learnt his trade with the previous owners. He and his small team operate out of a workshop in the back of the shop, this is where every pair of Conker shoes is produced.

It has to be said that Lucan’s shoes were over £60 and admittedly many would see that as an extravagance for a child whose feet are constantly growing. But if you weigh up that the same shoes can be stretched half a size bigger and then later be resoled a full size larger, what you are really buying is 3 pairs of shoes (and if Lucan get a little brother one day they will most certainly be passed down). As we have said before, when you invest  in quality there is no need to be a part of the disposable culture to which we have recently become accustomed. This is how people used to buy shoes and it feels right to us. Anyway, I will dismount my soap box!

What is remarkable is that Simon said that he makes no profit on the kids shoes and considers them to be a bit of loss-leader. His overheads and strict policy on quality mean that it is impossible for him to make the shoes for any less. It is for this reason that he cannot compete on an wholesale market. This is why his shop, despite selling online, is still his main outlet for his product. What was interesting though was what we saw when we left the shop. We suddenly began looking down at peoples feet as they milled about the town. Every other person was wearing Conker shoes! These guys obviously have a great reputation locally, it is just a shame that they seem to be a well kept secret to the rest of us.

– James

Today was another quiet holiday day. We generally expected that the Bank Holiday weekend would be a quite one but we are back on the road tomorrow. First off is a visit to Conker shoes in Totnes. As well as being fascinated by their manufacturing Lucan is desperate for new shoes so we are hoping to find him a nice pair to take back to Kent. Then in the afternoon we trek to Taunton to visit our new Twitter buddies Shakespeare Glass. I am particularly fascinated with the craft of glass blowing so I hope to to get some great pictures… and maybe even help out. One of the reasons that we are telling you all this now is that we are, for the next 2 days, staying in a yurt in Sharpham and are a little concerned that we may be incommunicado. If you do not hear from us for a day or so do not send out the search party, we are simply getting back to basics without electricity and WiFi, both rather crucial for a blog 😉

So back to today, we did visit Darts Farm, which was absolutely manic and not without stress. What with the sheer number of people and the isles too small for a kids buggy we did struggle to see much of what they had on offer. But it was great to see some of our old friends being promoted all in one place; House of Dorchester, Chococo, Tregothnan, Sharpham Park, Camel Valley were all represented. We were also presented with a whole display of English wines, the likes of which we wish other retailers would take note. However, much of their house and garden wares appeared to be Chinese imports by virtue of the fact that they did not state the country of manufacture. This meant that we only bought a bottle of wine and some delicious looking cheese while there.

We then headed back to our new hotel for the night. A rather cheap and not so cheerful Best Western on the outskirts of Totnes. We were excited to listen to today’s BBC Radio 4 You & Yours program which featured a number of our other friends: Kate Hill from Make It British, Denver Hewlett from Stoves and James Eden from Private White V.C. It was a whole episode assessing the advantages (or otherwise) of manufacturing in the UK. If you have a spare hour it is still on BBC on-demand.

Today has been a fantastic Easter Sunday. While it is snowing back in Kent, in Devon we have had the first signs of actual sun. In fact the weather was so temperate that we even made it to the beach in Sidmouth. It actually felt, at least for today, like a proper holiday. I think that we can be a little complacent about how beautiful the rich tapestry of scenery we possess as a nation, and Devon has some of the best.

I suppose that we really have to admit to not a great deal happening today on the buying British front. However, we did start our day by going to a local garden centre and petting some day old chicks. I can tell you nothing is going to get you more in an Eastery mood. We also set up an Easter egg hunt with a combination of British goodies from House of Dorchester and Chococo. The kids loved it but we hid some of the eggs so well that we are sure only about half were found!

Anyway, after spending 3 nights with family we are going to be hitting the road again tomorrow. But we are not going far, Newton Abbott only about 40 minutes away. We have heard some mixed reviews of the town so we are not entirely sure as to what to expect. If you have any good suggestions as to what we can see while there please let us know.

After a lovely lie in and a hearty breakfast of delicious bacon sandwiches we were ready to head down to the famous pad of Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall, River Cottage. We had been very kindly invited to come down to the Spring Fair by River Cottage HQ earlier in the year. As we are staying with family we absolutely had to have them come along too, so with Lucan and 6 year old twins in tow the whole day was going to be great fun.

We found the farm fairly easily and prepared for the Tractor ride down to where the action was. Lucan was beside himself with excitement at the prospect of going on on the tractor, and the twins were pretty excited too. The bumpy journey down to the River Cottage HQ was quite stunning and showed off the Devon countryside to it’s fullest, the sun even came out just as we arrived to show us the site in all its glory.

There were lots of different areas to the fair and the thing that struck me most, apart from Lucan’s vocal disappointment at leaving the tractor behind, was the great way the site was set out to guide you through and keep each area feeling buzzing but not hectic. We were particularly taken by the blacksmiths as they were making pieces before our eyes and the sounds and smells of the bellows and the coals really added to the experience. We later bought a hand forged fire poker and hook. As we pulled ourselves away from them we went to get a cup of tea and a piece of cake. These were being served out of Hugh’s kitchen door. The Elderflower cordial that Lucan had was superb and the cakes, everyone agreed, were some of the best they had eaten in a long time. It was interesting being in a place that you have seen so much on TV, almost other worldly.

Next we moved through to a different area. This had more of a farmers market feel and had some super local producers showing their wares. We had a great chat to the man running the Thomas Etty stall and came away with 4 types of chilli seeds and some round prickly cucumber seeds. We look forward to getting these in the greenhouse when we get back home. We also had a good chat to the Cornish Salt stall holder and bought some jam and chutney from From Dorset with Love.

After this Lucan and the twins went to the poly tunnel to plant courgette seeds which they are going to all grow and see whose grows best. I suspect that given the terrible weather we have been having in the South East that the South West courgettes have a better chance of fruiting!

We moved through to another area where there was a band playing some folksy music, which was perfectly suited to the event and atmosphere, and was thoroughly enjoyable. The best bit about this new area however was that it was the centre for all the food stalls and the choice was superb! In the end we opted for sausages in rolls for James and Lucan and I had a jacket potato with River Cottage beef chilli. While the food was fairly expensive it is safe to say that the first bite made it all worth while. We sat on the grass bank and watched the falconry display while we ate our lunch and drank our River Cottage beers. While the sun was out there really was no-where else we could have wanted to be. This said when the sun went in the hats and gloves went back on pretty quickly and we decided it was time for a last walk around before we headed off. It was at this point that we saw the man himself. Hugh did a surprise book signing near to where we have lunch but the line to meet him was getting a little ridiculous.

Even though, for the most part, it was pretty cold out for our visit we all came away saying how amazing River Cottage is. It is also nice to see that the farm seems fairly humble, even with it’s rather famous owner. There was nothing presumptuous about anything we saw and the people who were there really wanted to share their local produce and show their trades.

Our trip has been quite inspirational in many ways from ideas to take back for the garden, to things we can grow and things we can upcycle. I am very grateful to River Cottage for inviting us and congratulate them on a fantastic Spring Fair.

– Emily

We have been contacted by loads of manufacturers since beginning our project to buy British 3 months ago. There seem to be some consistent massages from these British manufactures as to why they feel the necessity to continue to produce in the UK. However, it was only speaking to Helen Ambrosen, co-founder of Lush cosmetics, yesterday that the penny dropped, as her views seemed to echo much of what we had heard before.

1 Costs
The feedback from industry is that the cost of manufacturing in the Far East is rising rapidly, but more than that, much of the actual costs of manufacturing abroad are hidden. While on paper you could set up your processing abroad far cheaper, in practicality it is never as cheap as you first anticipate. It is very easy for a business to come-a-cropper with a surprise bill with the many unknowns that exist. A strong business is one that can keep control of it’s financials. Manufacturing in the Far East is too risky, from a financial perspective, for some.

2 Supply chain
This seems to be an important one and the reason for many businesses returning to the UK after many years in the wilderness. Many manufacturers cannot hold vast warehouses of stock but need to support retailers and consumer demand. If the products are made locally then then managing the supply chain is significant easier. Let’s face it, every day your products are on a boat and not is stores you are losing money.

3 Quality
Something that Richard Jackson from Jacksons Fencing said to us was – if you manufacture abroad you do not know what is going to come off the boat until you have opened the crates. For many, the lack of control over their products is too much to handle. If something goes wrong when making in the UK you can correct these issues quickly and there is significantly less risk of a poor quality batch getting into the chain. Alongside this there is the reassurance that, should a mistake occur in the UK supply chain, you know who was responsible and can ensure the mistake does not happen again. This is not something you can control control as easily with a potential language barrier and many thousands of miles.

4 Ethics
Businesses are becoming increasingly accountable for the transparency of their supply chain. As we have seen with the recent horse meat scandal, any unknown entity in your supply could lead to a PR disaster. After all the last thing anyone wants to see in this country are the pictures that surfaced 10 years ago of children in sweatshops stitching trainers. If your products are made in the UK you are able to better ensure that everyone in your supply chain is being treated properly and fairly.

5  It’s home
Finally, and this is the most interesting reason from our perspective, the personalities that we meet that continue to manufacture in the UK do so because they really want to. They feel that they want to give back, help their communities and give people jobs. Interestingly, some very good business people have confirmed that they could manufacture overseas for cheaper, but despite the economics they feel a moral obligation to continue here. These are the kind of business people that, as a consumer, I want to buy my goods from.

Now, we are not suggesting that manufactures that do produce over seas do not display any of these characteristics. These are simply the reasons that we have been given by the people we have met as to why they have been successful in keeping production in the UK. We find it a persuasive argument to keep manufacturing here. What do you think?

Our second stop for the day was at Mathmos on the other side of Poole. Again Graham Satchell and his BBC film crew were with us to document our visit. After driving through an interesting mix of manufacturing in the industrial estate we came to the Mathmos HQ in a rather unsuspecting warehouse. I have to admit that as we  have either have or have had a few Mathmos products in our time I was very excited to get there and see whatever we could.

We were met by Cressida Granger, the owner of the company, and she showed us around the unit. She explained that the lava lamps are made completely in the UK but not all the parts were made on the one site in Poole. The glass, metal and plastic bases were produced for Mathmos around the country and then brought to the Poole HQ where the glass lamps were filled with the secret mix of wax and water ‘with a few bits and bobs added in’, and then the lava lamps were put together and boxed up ready for shipping.

She was quick to share that while all the lava lamps are fully UK manufactured, the newer items are not. The reason for this is that the tooling for the various, and changing parts, was 20 times more expensive here than it was in China. This added cost of making these products in the UK would mean that they could not compete on price. She did say that she is always looking out for new people who could take over some of the work that is shipped out to bring more and more of the Mathmos production back to the UK. Cressida is also keen to ensure that her labelling for the mixed origin of her manufacture is clear. 

Once we had seen the hot wax being added to the bottles, and the other ingredients added on top, we went to their show room to see the amazing range of products that Mathmos have on offer. Lucan was very taken with the Chuppi light. He was quite mesmerised by the changing colours and took to trying to ruin every filming take by shouting out the colour names as they changed!

 As Mathmos is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year Cressida was keen to point out the heritage of her main product. We were shown some fantastic pictures of old lamp designs that would not look out of place in the modern family home. We tried to persuade her to put some of these old designs back into production but I am not sure that the promise of our future business was enough to persuade her. We talked with Cressida about the importance to her of manufacturing in the UK and she explained to us how she has worked hard to ensure that a sizeable chunk of the business remains fully here. The imports of similar looking lamps from the Far East have of course had an impact on sales and yet the company is rightly proud of the provenance of the lamps. She is certainly relying on more and more people seeing that that provenance is really worth an awful lot.

This rounded off an incredibly busy day and I must say that we will all be needing an early bed time tonight to re-charge ready for tomorrow.

Well, it was a rude awakening at 5am this morning as Lucan really did not want to sleep in his strange hotel room bed. However, we did need to leave early this morning as we were due to be at Lush and meet Graham Satchell and crew from the BBC for 9am. We were still about an hour away from Poole so we breakfasted and hit the road.

We smelt Lush’s factory long before we saw it, and followed the olfactory compass through a rather unglamorous industrial estate. Graham was already there waiting for us, looking a little bleary-eyed after filming in Blackpool the day before. We last filmed with Graham in January and were personally pleased to see him again. A genuinely nice bloke and not consistent with how you would imagine media types.

We were greeted at the door to Lush’s factory by Helen Ambrosen, one of the seven co-founders of the businesses. Helen welcomed us enthusiastically and told us that we would be making soap and some of their face masks. What an exciting proposition!

We were all lead to the main manufacturing units where they make their bath comforters, new Fun soaps and face masks. Once you get inside any reservations that we may have had about the industrial location of the factory quickly dissolved. The factory takes on a very different feel inside. It would not take too much of a leap of faith to make comparisons between what we were seeing and Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory. It is just a shame that Helen could not manage a forward roll for us on our arrival ;-). The whole place is brightly coloured, with whirling machines and interesting smells. A real overload of the senses.

Made By James, Emily, Lucan & Teddy

If you have bought stuff from Lush you could not help but have noticed a little sticker of a cartoon style face telling you who your new soap has been made by. It was at this point that we knew that they were keen to put us all to work as they presented us with our very own stickers for the Lush goodies that we would be making. We were extremely flattered that they would have gone to this much trouble for us (but a little concerned about how much work they actually wanted us to do!?!).

First off was a tour of the factory. Actually to call it a factory seems a little wrong. It felt more like a very large kitchen. All of the equipment would not have felt out of place in a bakery. In fact when we were shown the walk-in fridge filled with fresh fruit and veg we really began to understand how close to food production this all was. One of the questions that some of our twitter followers asked us to ask Lush was about the nature of their ingredients. Some were concerned that because there shops smell so strongly that they might use a lot of synthetic ingredients. We were left in no doubt that this was not the case!!!

After walking through the factory we were put to work (Lucan included). First off we were shown how to make the bath comforters. These were bubble bath slices containing a pink and white swirl. We saw the machine mixing the pink colour which was so vivid that it honestly boggled your eyes to see so much pink swirling about in the mixer. This is then portioned out, rolled and white mixture added on top. The two colours are flattened further, rolled-up together in one long sausage and cut. All of this is done by hand.

Next we were off to make face masks. Our challenge was to create a batch of their Sacred Truth mask, which contains ginkgo leaf, honey, papaya, yoghurt, free-range eggs and wheat-grass among other things. What is interesting here is that, dispute what you might believe, the ingredients are all added in a form in which you or I would recognise them. By this I mean that the papaya used was not a concentrate from a big tub, it was actually quarters of the fruit itself. The same goes for the other ingredients, nothing was added that I did not feel I could have quite happy have eaten… actually I was getting a little hungry at this point.

We were again whisked away to see some more production and have a quick interview with Helen. Lucan was a good boy, for the most part, but after 2 hours of being a part of the Lush family he was getting restless. It was time to move on to our next destination with the BBC in tow. Later in the day we were due to visit Mathmos… of lava-lamp fame. This will be documented in our next post.

Today has been a fantastic start to our trip!

After a relaxed start to the day topping up the car with BP fuel and checking the oil, we headed out towards Lyburn Cheese. We started our British adventure by stopping at the British institution that is the Little Chef for some lunch. In particular this was the test restaurant of celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal in Popham. The restaurant still has its trademark Heston style but seems sadly to have lost some of the speed and attention to detail that he was keen to implement as he turned the restaurant around. Never the less the staff were very friendly and put up with Lucan having a tantrum when he spilt his juice, by distracting him with crayons and a colouring page. The food was ok, better I’m sure than it used to be there but was quite pricey for just mediocre.

Once we were refuelled we headed out towards Lyburn. We found the farm and cheese making rooms along a long winding road, well signposted and with a very warm welcome from owners Judy and Mike Smales. We were shown the young cows in the barn which Lucan thought were very “phe-ue” and the older cows which Mike explained are having to be kept in for the moment as the weather has been too bad to let them out onto the fields. He also said that since 1954 the farm had not missed a single milking, which I have to admit is a very impressive feat with 130 plus cows to milk twice a day! After a good look around the farm and especially the tractors for Lucan, we went inside to see how all this lovely milk was turned into even lovelier cheese.

We donned our white coats, hair nets and blue shoe covers and signed forms to say we were not poorly and then we were allowed into the cheese making rooms. Unfortunately we hadn’t picked a great day to visit as their Head Cheesemaker, Paul Thomas was away on holiday but nevertheless we were talked through the process of how the cheese is made by Jess. She explained that the milk was pasteurised in the room next to the cheese room and was then pumped directly into the 2100 litre stainless steel vat. The starter and rennet were added and then when ready the curds were placed in their 5kg moulds ready for the maturing process to begin.

At this point we were taken to see where the cheeses are aged. This process takes anything from 10 weeks to 18 months and is what gives the the different cheeses on offer their different textures and flavours. The Lyburn Gold is the youngest and is very creamy and mild, the Winchester is left for around 9 months and finally the Old Winchester is matured for anything up to 18 months and is the best seller for the company. Separate to these there is the Stoney Cross which is a more recently developed cheese and is covered in a layer of mould and stored in a special, separate and if I’m honest pretty stinky room where the mould spore are concentrated to give a good coverage in just 3 months of maturation.There is also the flavoured cheese packed with garlic, nettles and all sorts of other great flavours. All their cheeses start out in exactly the same way and it is simply in the maturation that they develop their unique characteristics. After a tasting of the fantastic cheeses on offer (with Lucan doing more eating than tasting) we left them to carry on their super work.

We carried on towards our home for the night and went passed SetleyRidge Vineyard which promised a free wine tasting. Never ones to turn down a tasting and with the lure of good food to buy for our dinner, we stopped off and bought some local apple juice, bread and tomatoes to go with our cheese from Lyburn.

We are now stopped for the night and are ready for an early start tomorrow as we will be in Poole for 9am. With that in mind we will say night night to you all 🙂

– The Bradshaws

Chocolate is foremost in our minds at this time of year. What with Easter coming up we are beginning to think about the best place to get our choccy egg fix, and thankfully we are not short of options.

I can already hear some of you say “but we do not grow cacao in this country so how is it British?”. Well, as far as we know that maybe true (although we did not expect to find tea grown in the UK either) but what concerns us is the manufacture.  This also might also clear up a common misconception about our project. We feel that the important element which makes a product British is a significant element of processing or manufacture. So for instance: we could buy a T-shirt produced by a factory in this country knowing full well that the cotton used to make it was imported. The same goes for chocolate. We know that the beans are going to be imported but processing such as refining, blending, conching, tempering and finishing are all possible by British Chocolatiers. Surely that is enough to say that the product is truly British?
So, where are we with buying eggs?

Well we have already sorted some options courtesy of House of Dorchester. They produce beautiful looking egg shaped tins of small moulded eggs. We are visiting relatives when on our travels later this week and we want to hide these in the garden for the kids. They also make great tasting grown up chocolates and small individual Easter bars with stunning pictures of traditional Easter scenes on the front.

We also have a great looking hamper arriving for our family we are staying with in Exeter over Easter. This has come courtesy of Chococo and I am very excited to see what arrives as I found them through a recommendation on the Telegraph website.

Because we are going to be away I am not sure that we will have time to buy larger eggs for each other this year but I have had some contact with Cadbury’s who have confirmed that their famous Cream Eggs are made in the UK. While both Emily and I would attest to being chocolate snobs I do like a cream egg. They remind me so much of being a kid… but I am sure they get smaller every year!!! Emily is more of a Malteaster bunny girl but sadly they are off limits for the year 🙁

If you know of any great Easter eggs please leave a comment to help others find some great British choccy this year!

– James