GOING back to his roots was a yearning for John Bell , harking back to his days as a child on the family farm in Weardale .

‘ I grew up on our mixed farm that had been in my family for generations and had always had native breeds . Our sheep were North of England Mules put to the Suffolk tup . I ’ ve always had a career away from farming and it was one of the things I ’ d missed .’

‘ I was hankering to get back into it and the purchase of Tunstall Road Farm near Catterick gave Helen and I the opportunity . We ’ d bought Manor Farm in Newton-le- Willows first in 2009 but it was Tunstall Road Farm that we purchased in 2013 that gave us the facilities we needed to house the animals and drive the farm .’

John ’ s career has been in commodity trading in the City and in Geneva . As such he understands about markets and about

Hampshire Down sheep

supply and demand . He realised that what he would need to make his return to farming work properly was a business model , something that would work for him and Helen .

‘ We knew that for our scale we would have to go direct to the consumer with produce that customers would enjoy for all of the right reasons and that is how Tunstall Meat Company was born .’

‘ I had always been interested in native heritage breeds and that ’ s where we headed on cattle , sheep and pigs . We also decided that our farming operation and our media presence would major on animal welfare , traceability , farming in as environmentally friendly a way as possible – as well as providing meat with real taste and flavour through amazing marbling that only comes with the maturity of the animal .’

‘ We also decided that going direct would , in our case , mean opening up

Herefords

our own butcher ’ s shop . We are really passionate about local produce and local retail – and we were immensely fortunate that a good friend we have known for the past 20 years , Robert Hendrix was looking for a new challenge at just the time we needed someone to make the selling direct part of our business happen in the best way possible .’

Helen Bell

Sam Lumb

‘ It ’ s alright doing everything right on the farm , but that has to be then backed up and enhanced by your sales side – and for us that was specifically getting the butchery right . It ’ s called TMC , which stands for Tunstall Meat Company and is based in Richmond .’

Robert Hendrix is a Dutchman with an impeccable record in butchery , being a chef and running major outfits elsewhere . He has been executive head chef on cruise ships and was executive head chef at Newcastle United FC for ten years .

‘ Robert knew exactly how to take our native heritage breed beef , lamb and pork to the next level utilising the quality of the meat and the traceability values . Everything we rear goes through the shop