Those that follow our blog will know that I have an online store selling my own handmade leather goods. To celebrate our project to have a totally DIY Christmas I am pleased to offer 10% discount on all of the items on my store until the 25th December for all our readers. BUT… that is not all! Anyone using the code ‘BritishFamily‘ at check out will not only get the 10% discount but will also receive an additional mystery free gift. So, grab yourself a bargain today!

Visit www.rawleather.co.uk and use code ‘BritishFamily’.

All of the items in my shop are made using quality British saddle leather and all completely hand stitched and hand dyed.

Enjoy!

– James

What you may not know about my wife is that she is a rather talented singer and she recently donated her voice to feature in the latest Waitrose advert and she was one of those selected to be featured. She is super excited about it and Waitrose is certainly a brand that we are passionate advocates for. They are one of the best supermarket for supporting British made products.

What is even better is that you can You can buy the track now and all Waitrose’s profits from the sale of the track will go to charity.

Here is ‘behind the scenes’ video of all of those that donated their voices:

If you want to find MrsB she is about 17 seconds in bottom centre in the red jumper!

– James

Jaguar Land Rover have today confirmed that as of 2016, a total of three JLR-badged vehicles will be built at their new Chinese plant with a total capacity of 130,000 units a year. Is this a worrying sign of things to come from the Indian owned company?

For the first time in their history Jaguar and Land Rover cars will be made outside of the UK. The first model to be produced in the 40,000 square metre Jiangsu site will be the popular Evoque sport-utility vehicle. However, JLR bosses have been quick to rebuke any accusations that the move undermines their commitment to their UK manufacturing operation. They suggest that the £1.9 Billion investment in China will allow them to avoid paying import tariffs, source parts more cheaply and more efficiently, and benefit from lower labor costs. Currently, JLR imports its cars into China from the UK, which they say puts them at a cost disadvantage with rivals. They have made no mention of any plans to import these new models back into the UK. Only time will tell but it if that does happen it will surly be a kick in the teeth for UK automotive manufacturing.

Production line workers packaging frozen sprouts at the Ross’s Westwick factory at North Walsham before they were taken over by Heinz.

Heinz last week announced proposals to close its Westwick factory in North Norfolk, putting over 200 jobs at risk and ending over 70 years production at the site.  Heinz’s licence to manufacture Aunt Bessie’s frozen potato products for the William Jackson Food Group nears its end in April 2015 and will not be renewed.

The community near the apparently doomed Heinz factory at Westwick is being asked to rally behind the endangered workers.
 Town centre campaigners have launched a petition can also be found online at www.jobsmeansheinz.co.uk.

The 45,000m2 factory opened  in 1948 and was acquired by HJ Heinz in 2000. It’s closure is sure to have a devastating effect on this community and the knock on effects to farming significant.

There has been no news yet as to who is likely to now be producing Aunt Bessie’s potato products but we suspect that they will likely end up being imported. We will follow this issue and report when we know more.

In the meantime please show your support and sign the petition.

The Raspberry Pi Computer is just one fantastic innovation made in Wales

Over a fifth (21%) of consumers in new and emerging markets are more likely to buy a product if the Welsh Flag is used, strongly associating Welsh products with value for money and tradition. Sounds good eh? However, that figure leaps to 64% with the use of the Union Flag, which is more likely to be associated with quality internationally.

These are the finding of a new report commissioned by Barclays Corporate Banking, which makes for interesting reading and might come as a shock for many proud Welsh manufacturers.

When labelled as Made in England/Scotland/Wales, goods tend to command considerably lower premiums than Made in Britain with only the one exception, alcoholic beverages, where the branding Made in Scotland adds a greater premium than Made in Britain in several countries.

The label Made in Britain triggers a willingness to pay of up to 7% more among customers in new and emerging markets than for products without a declared country of origin and at least 50% of respondents in all countries perceived the quality of British goods to be “good” or “very good”.

Despite recent calls for independence this perhaps proves we are better as a ‘United’ Kingdom as far as exporting is concerned. So, the advice is to drop the made in Wales, Made in Scotland and Made in England branding and celebrate manufacturing in Britain.

We thought it would be fun, for this post, to look at what was currently available on Ebay that is/was made in the UK. Ebay can be the home of the weird and wonderful so lets see what cool stuff we can find…

REGA PLANAR 2 TURNTABLE

Rega have been making record players, amplifiers and speakers since the 1980’s… and I am please to say still make in England. This classic planar turntable from around the mid-80’s will set you back  £175. Rega’s latest range of players cost between £250 and £1000.

Hornby Trains. MALLARD LOCOMOTIVE & TENDER

The Mallard is one of the UK’s most recognisable steam locomotive built at Doncaster in the 1930-40’s. Around the same time Hornby launched their first 00 gauge train sets. This replica Mallard train was made in Britain before Hornby moved production to the Far East in the 1980’s, along with the rest of the UK toy industry. Recently there have been mutterings of Hornby moving some production back to the UK… fingers crossed.

VINTAGE MENS TIMEX WATCH

Back in the day Britain made some fine quality watches and clocks. The names of Smiths, Ingersol and Timex were known throughout the globe as a mark of quality timekeeping. Smiths, as I understand it, still make specialist instrumentation in Derby but sadly non of these once great names make watches in the UK any more. So the only way to own a low cost British made watch is to go vintage. This Timex from 1975 is a great looking piece and at £17.50 it is less than the price of a crappy plastic Swatch.

Girls back to school single pleat pinafore dress

Made by Pex of Leicester this girls school pinafore dress is included in this list because of the fantastic £7.38 buy it now price tag. A British made dress for under £10???( and people do not understand our annoyance when people say that clothes cannot be made at a competitive price in the UK).  That being said, I do not believe that all Pex clothing is made in the UK.

Vintage Boxed Spenby Exercisers – Chest Expanders

Dating from the 1960’s this bit of vintage exercise equipment is boxed, looks in usable condition and comes with full instructions. The Spenby brand, based in Lancashire, was quick to catch on to the men’s fitness trend coming from across the Atlantic with their own range of products aimed at the UK market. This, and an expanded chest, could you yours for just £9.99.

Reviewing and finding out about these products from Ebay has been great fun and I suspect that it might become a regular feature on our blog. If you have any memories or recollections of these products or find something interesting on Ebay please do comment below.

Like most people throughout England we were overjoyed to wake up to news that our Scottish brothers have chosen not discard the kinship that makes us all British.

However, it would be easy now to forget about the 1.6 million Scots that did vote for independence. We would like to think that this was perhaps not borne from a centuries old resentment of the English but more a recent disenchantment with Westminster. If that is indeed the case then we suspect it is not a view unique to the Scottish population of the UK.

That being said, the idea of being ‘Better Together’ won through and we can only hope that, in this case, the old adage of ‘what does not break us makes us stronger’ proves true.

Congratulations Scotland the brave.

Fed up of powdery and tasteless apples? Buy them in season and you can be assured crisp and juicy apples all year long. Here is our guide to which British apples to buy and when:

Bramley  – August to July
Discovery – Early August to early September
Zari – September to October
Cox – Mid-September to early April
St Edmund’s Pippin – Mid -September to mid-October
Gala / Royal Gala – Late September to early May
Russet – Late September to early March
Red Pippin – October to November
Rubens – October to January
Golden Delicious – November
Jazz – November to May
Braeburn – Late December to May

Support British apple growers and enjoy!

– Emily

The British family have had a week of experiencing a mainly apple based diet. This is due to the recent gift of a crate of Zari apples from AC Goatham & Son and 50 or so bottles of Brogdale Juice  left over from the bar at the British Family Fayre.

I have personally eaten 4 apples per day everyday this week, washed down with 2-3 bottles of apple juice. The side effects of such a diet are somewhat alarming and perhaps not a subject matter that needs too much attention in this blog. Given the high concentration of apple related products consumed this week you might imagine that my tolerance for continued gluttony would be limited. However, I am of the option in this case that you cannot get too much of a good thing.

I suspect that many of you might never have heard of the Zari variety of apple. Indeed, I was also ignorant of them until our Fayre last weekend where AC Goatham were trying to entice the great British public into trying this little known fruit. The best way to describe a Zari apple is to think about all of the best bits of any apple you have ever eaten and roll it into one single fruit. They are tangy, crisp, juicy and even the perfect size. In short they are the ultimate apple.

AC Goatham are basically the only people growing these commercially in the UK. They have have 80 acres of the things across various sites and I believe that they currently stock Sainsbury’s (I am not sure about the other supermarkets  but I am sure they will let me know and I will add an addendum). I suspect that a Zari crumble or other such recipe is soon the be featured in this very blog. However, if you get a chance to try the Zari apple I really suggest you do.

Our apple adventures continued when we bought a huge stock of Brogdale juices for our bar at the Fayre this year including; apple, apple and rhubarb, pear and apple and blackcurrent. Brogdale were also there themselves on the day as part of our Market Place. It happens that we have a decent stock of bottles left over and so we are well and truly set for juice for the next 3 months or so. That being said, these juices are great especially the apple and rhubarb.

We are currently in the middle of the British apple season so please indulge yourself…. but don’t go overboard!

– James

A chart of which British apples are in season his here>>> 

We are proud to announce that last weekend played host to 2nd British Family Fayre and it was a roaring success. Initial estimates are that we welcomed in-excess of the 4000 visitors we had in 2013. That being said the organisation this year’s event has taken it’s toll on Emily and I. Both of us are totally exhausted, emotionally drained and are now looking forward to having another focus in our lives for a while.

Those that follow our blog closely will have noticed that the frequency of our posts significantly declined over the month of August. We apologise for this and hope to get back to business as usual as soon as possible. In the meantime here are some pictures of a very special day:

James and Emily