A KIRKBY Lonsdale butchers is celebrating after becoming the only English raider to conquer Scotland in a prestigious awards ceremony.

Dales Traditional Butchers turned into border raiders and brought home a top prize in the annual World Championships Scotch Pie Awards.

Amid the toughest of pastry competition, the judges, made up of leading lights in the Scottish food industry, decided that Dales makes the best cold savoury in the land - its pork and chilli jam pie.

More than 450 products were entered in the competition, including pies, sausage rolls, savouries and apple pies and they were judged by more than 50 industry experts.

The chief executive of Scottish Bakers Alasdair Smith said: “Producing such exceptional savoury products to such a high standard takes passion, pride and discipline which Dales demonstrated throughout the competition,”

The Lune Valley butcher also achieved another award as their sausage roll received a gold.

Mark Duckworth of Dales said: “I am delighted with the result.

“To take the prize for the best cold savoury in the land is a huge honour and we are proud to take our trophy home to share with our team and our customers.

“I am really looking forward to selling more of our champion pies than ever.”

The competition, which has run for 20 years, aims to highlight the work of bakers and butchers who create high-quality pastry products day in, day out.

“Recognising the ‘great and the good’ in this way rewards excellence and raises the bar in the industry,” said head judge Ian Nelson, who oversaw the judging process to ensure only the ‘best of the best’ were awarded.

It’s a second success of the year for Dales.

The butchers secured a gold award for both their haggis-based ‘pork Balmoral’ product and their Scotch pie with haggis in the Scottish Craft Butchers Haggis Products Awards, and completed their winning quartet with silver awards for their haggis Scotch eggs and another haggis-based product known as the ‘Flying Scotsman.’

And 12 months ago they scooped seven golds at The Smithfield Awards, held annually by the Q Guild of Butchers in London.