Nursey managing director Tim Nursey. right, receives the company's Countryside Alliance award from Defra Minister Richard Benyon MP

AN EAST Anglian sheepskin business has beaten off competition from across the UK to be named among the winners in the annual Countryside Alliance Awards.

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Nursey of Bungay picked up the Traditional Business award at the event, which was held at Westminster, in the House of Lords.

A team from the Suffolk company travelled to London for the awards, with the company’s trophy being presented to managing director Tim Nursey by Richard Benyon MP, a Minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The Countryside Alliance Awards, which have been running for six years, were set up to celebrate the characters, produce, traditions and enterprise of the British countryside.

Nursey, a family firm now into its fifth generation, was established in Bungay in 1790 and is mainly a manufacturer and retailer of sheepskin clothing.

However, it has also developed into producing high-quality specialist equestrian saddles, as well as manufacturing own-label garments for a UK gun maker.

Countryside Alliance chief executive Alice Barnard said: “Rejecting mechanisation, everything is still hand made at the Bungay factory, with the belief that no machine could display the care, skill and deft touch that a person can – and who could disagree?

“Nursey’s shop is clearly part of the fabric of rural life and every effort is made to engage the younger generation through apprentice schemes passing down a genuine skill.

“While so many garments are imported into the UK we are proud to celebrate and recognise our remaining skilled rural workforce and what it can achieve in a traditional field,” said Mrs Barnard.

“While the manufacturing process at Nursey would still be recognised by the managing director’s great great grandfather, the business remains relevant to its modern setting and should be celebrated for that,” she added.