Burton's Bangers - Old Fashioned Taste and Quality

A Redcar and Cleveland Planning Officer has helped "duck" the trend and provided a way forward for an enterprising "Southern Immigrant" to provide himself with an income and locals with a taste from the past.

Robert Duckworth, Planning Officer at Redcar and Cleveland Council's Guisborough offices, was able to assist former London City worker David Burton with a solution to his Sausage and Bacon making problem by thinking "Outside the Box". Mr Burton moved to Brotton, close to Saltburn-by-the-Sea, about eight years ago having walked out on the rat race of London City life. He said, "My wife and I moved here with our daughter in 2002 and I wouldn't go back to London for all the tea in China, but it has been a struggle trying to find a way to make a living." Mr Burton was formerly a Pensions Specialist working in expensive Mayfair and Old Bailey before turning his back on that life, becoming one of Jehovah's Witnesses, selling up and moving to Brotton. "It was quite a culture shock," he said. "I used to get on the same train everyday. For thirteen years, I saw the same faces day in, day out, week after week but I never spoke to a single person, nor they to me. Ten minutes in Brotton and everyone knows your life story," he joked with us.
He and his wife Jackie have founded Burton's Bangers under the slogan "An Old Fashioned Taste of Quality and Value." They supply a superb range of homemade sausages and traditional bacon direct to customers' homes, via their trusty Landrover (serviced and maintained by friendly local firm PVH Landrovers).
It has taken them around two years to get the venture off the ground and Mr Burton was at pains to stress how instrumental various people had been, including Mr Duckworth. "The first person we spoke to was Senior Enforcement Officer Derek McGurl," explained Mr Burton. "He was very keen to see us succeed, but knew that in order to meet current EU regulations, we would need to convert and fully equip our former workshop at the back of our house into a modern food preparation area. However, being in a residential area, we would need to somehow obtain change of use planning permission, which obviously would be hard to achieve."
After much communication and a very open minded approach by Mr Duckworth, Planning Permission was eventually granted, subject to a long string of restrictions put in place to avoid undue interference or loss of amenity to local residents. These have included a stringent restriction on the processing capacity of the venture, the hours of operation and very strict rules on the treatment and removal of any waste.
Mr Burton explained, "So many people complain about the quality and price of food from supermarkets. Having learnt the skills of sausage and bacon making from practise, experimentation and remembering how my Grandad did things (a butcher all his life), we have come up with a range of products which will hopefully really please the very small number of customers we will be able to provide for."
Dave and Jackie are able to offer a free home delivery service of home cured bacon from £5.00 per kilo and five flavours of sausages in various forms, from patties to fit into breakfast buns, through breakfast sausages and on to full size bangers, all at just at £2.20lb delivered. They also offer a selection of both homemade vegetarian and gluten free sausages. To order, call them on 01287 678141 and they will be happy to send you a full menu.
"There are so many people to thank for helping getting us started" said Mr Burton, "Not least Robert and Tim Wessenfelder of Wessenfelders in Middlesborogh who have always treated us with such kindness and respect, right from our first sausage. Also David Hitchens from LEGI and our Bank Manager Mike Pearce at Nat West who have helped us fund the project, but most of all, without Derek McGurl and Robert Duckworth we would not be able to get off the ground legally. We are an unusual project in that we are going back to a time where profit isn't the main aim, having a quiet little business providing a really good local product we can be proud off is the real satisfaction."
We wish them well.