A FAMILY butchery business is being sold after serving a North-East community for 145 years.

Yager’s in Consett, County Durham, was started by a German immigrant, who moved to the area from Prussia.

Germany would not unify for another year, Queen Victoria would reign for another three decades, William Gladstone was the British Prime Minister and The Northern Echo was first published.

The year was 1870 and Charles Frederick Yager had settled in Britain a few years earlier and married an English woman named Mary.

They chose Consett, a thriving iron town high on the edge of the Pennines, to set up their pork butchery business, which has, over the years, become something of a local institution.

Their legacy survives today with their great, great grandson, David, in charge and the name Yager synonymous with quality pork pies and their ‘special’ pork sandwiches. But now, the family's link to the shop is finally being broken.

Mr Yager, 63, who lives in Ebchester, said: “It is becoming increasingly difficult for me. I have been doing this 45 years, I have not had a holiday in seven years and never have two days off in a row. I am tired.

“It is a family business, but I have no family working here anymore and I have just become a granddad so I want to spend time with my granddaughter, Phoebe.”

Over the years the business has stood the test of time and withstood a wave of anti-German sentiment during the First World War, even though it had been in the former steel town 45 years when Germany sank the Lusitania in 1915, a century ago.

The founder, Charles, had died by this point, but his wife, Mary, was running the business and as she was the widow of a German man, by law, she had to take his nationality.

The Durham County Advertiser reported that both her shop and her son’s chemist shop were attacked on May 14, 1915, despite the fact she had been granted British naturalisation.

David Yager said: “I can understand people’s emotions running high at the time of the sinking of the Lusitania, but we were here running a business, paying taxes and were staunchly British

“My granddad, Henry, who took over the shop, actually went off to fight in the trenches in the First World War against the Germans.

“He was fiercely loyal, and said to my pregnant grandma, ‘If I do not come back, and it is a boy, call him Harry’.

“He did come back though and Harry was my dad who ran the shop after him.”

Mr Yager started working in the shop 45 years ago and became the owner in 1993.

He works closely with head butcher Paul Fitzpatrick who has been with the firm almost 35 years and employs several staff.

Mr Yager said the business, and his nearby factory, which are being sold as a going concern, would be able to keep his family name.

He said it had been on the market for several months but a recent sign in the window had generated as huge response on social media.

He said: “I am gobsmacked. We have been completely overwhelmed and humbled by the comments people are making. Whoever takes over has got a goldmine on their hands.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about the business should contact Mr Yager at the shop on 01207-503-008.