A YOUNG butcher who started his own business has been presented with a coveted award for his top quality bangers.

Aiden Smith, 25, who owns Smiths Butchers, fought off competition from nine butchers and two pubs from across Tendring at the Harwich Sausage Festival.

The businesses went head-to-head to see who could produce the tastiest sausage.

Mr Smith, who only started his business last year, was delighted to scoop the Butchers Challenge and overall champion awards.

He was presented with an engraved skillet and will go on to compete at the national Champion of Champions Sausage competition in October .

Mr Smith said it was an easy decision to start running the butchers, in High Street, Brightlingsea, when the opportunity arose.

“The shop was up for sale and when the opportunity came for me to take over I thought I would go for it,” he said.

“My grandfather has got a butcher’s shop and I had been helping out since I was 12.

“My dad, uncle and brother are all involved - it is a family thing.

“You don’t get many opportunities like this so I thought I had to take it.

“We have had a really good but hard first year. It has been a learning curve but I have some great people around.”

Smiths Butchers won the competition with their classic farmhouse sausage which combined succulent course-ground pork with a herb seasoning.

Mr Smith added: “It is excellent to win, considering I only took over here last April it is good going.

“If you’ve got a good sausage you’ve got a good business, we try really hard to make sure the right stuff goes into our sausages.

“We put a lot of thought into our ingredients.”

The sixth Harwich Sausage Festival, organised by Tendring Campaign for Real Ale, was held in November and the competition was more fierce than ever.

The Alma Inn, Harwich, took home the award for innovation with their carefully spiced and seasoned sausage.

Richard Oxborrow, of Tendring CAMRA, said: “Aiden might be only 25 but he is really passionate about what he does and his win at our festival goes next to a gold award for his Welsh Dragon sausages at the nationals.

“When it came to count up the votes this year we discovered that voting had never been closer and a handful of votes separated the top five places.”