A traditional butcher's in a former pit village has just proved it's a cut above the rest.

IT IS splendidly unexpected. In the Rural Retailer awards, organised by the Countryside Alliance, the regional winner of the Daily Telegraph Traditional Business was not some pretty little farm shop in a converted barn surrounded by rolling acres. No, it was a butcher's shop in the main street of a former pit village.

But once you're inside Robinsons of Wingate it is easy to see why they are champions. This is a proper shop, selling proper food, produced the proper way.

"People have forgotten what real food is all about. We like to remind them," says Janet Bell, who runs the shop with her brother Trevor Robinson, the fifth generation of their family since the shop was started in 1874.

"It's fairly simple really," says Janet. "We know exactly where all our meat comes from, most of it within ten miles of the shop. We have our own abattoir and slaughterman. Nothing's being ferried for miles up and down the country or brought half way across the world. From field to fork, we know exactly what we're selling."

On the day we were there, a notice in the shop said that the beef came from Cleadon, the lamb from Haswell Moor, the pork from Spennymoor and the poultry from Ripon. No chance of that lot getting travel sick.

As well as the fresh meat they also sell a huge range of pies and pasties, all looking - and tasting - home made and made on the premises, and also run a catering business and have a small cafà next door, as well as a greengrocers, again selling as much local produce as possible.

That morning they had been making pies, quiches and mince and dumplings. The smell was wonderful.

What's more, they've got lovely customers too.

But it hasn't been easy. Traditional butcher's shops are a dying breed, gradually being killed off by supermarkets, regulations and a generation that hasn't a clue how to cook a piece of meat.

"For us, everything changed about ten or 15 years ago when all the banks moved out of Wingate. It killed businesses here. Once folk had to go to Peterlee for the bank, they did their shopping there too," says Janet.

At the same time, EU regulations put an end to hundreds of small abattoirs at the back of butchers' shops. There used to be 15 slaughterhouses in Tony Blair's constituency, now there are two - Robinsons' and one other.

Undeterred, Janet and Trevor invested huge sums of money in getting the abattoir up to the new rules.

"I tackled Tony Blair on that one. I asked him just what was the difference between a piece of meat killed in the old abattoir and one produced from the new one with all the regulations and cost. He couldn't tell me," says Janet.

They still kill their own beasts, usually four or five a week, plus a dozen sheep. This means they can make their own pies, brawn, sausages, penny ducks. Proper penny ducks. "It's just traditional stuff, made the traditional way."

As well as the shop, they have a delivery round and do the weekly market in Durham - where the customers snap up the fillet steak and rib of beef. "Though we also have a few students who come along for whole oxtails, things like that."

But they are the exception.

"There's a whole generation of youngsters now, young mothers too, who have no idea how to cook or feed their families. They'll spend £12 on sandwiches or ready meals, when you know they could buy a load of mince, potatoes and vegetables and have meals for a week for that," says Janet. "And if they don't know how to cook, then their own children in turn don't stand a chance."

About ten years ago, brother and sister expanded the business into catering. "Trevor played cricket for Sedgefield and we used to supply the meat for the barbecues. That was the beginning of it and we just took off from there," says Janet.

Now they cater for all sorts of events all across County Durham, from simple to extravagant. "We can do posh. Our canapÃs are second to none," she adds.

Robinsons have no idea who nominated them for the award and are eyeing their customers looking for likely Telegraph readers. It has brought them some new customers, a bit surprised to find just where the shop is.

"When the man from the judges came to see us, he said he loved it," says Janet. "He'd seen so many twee places he said, but ours was different, ours was real. That's how we like it."

n Robinsons, butchers, green grocers, cafÃ, caterers, Front Street, Wingate.