BATTLEAXE Christine Hamilton has been getting her teeth into a Burnley butcher's sausages -- declaring them the best in the North.

The wife of former Tory MP Neil and I'm A Celebrity contestant has been dashing round the country to find who makes the best bangers and mash as part of British Sausage Week and was seduced by Fence Gate Inn owner Kevin Berkin's Lancashire sausage recipe.

His winning combination of pork, leek and black pudding sausages with a hint of sage, served with English mustard and flat leaf parsley mash and red wine onion gravy saw Kevin crowned Lancashire Sausage Champion 2004 last year.

All the ingredients are produced locally and Kevin makes the black puddings himself.

Kevin, 47, said: "Christine loved the flavours and was very pleased to see English mustard instead of French.

"I think it's the absolute array and riot of flavours in the dish which makes it a success.

"I'm thrilled to have been crowned the best bangers and mash cook in the region.

"Hopefully, the rest of the country will now sit up and take note that Burnley boys are the undisputed sausage champs."

Kevin began working in his father's butcher's shop in Rosegrove Lane, Burnley when he was 14 years old but left when he was 19 to set up a chain of seven shops in Burnley town centre.

In 1982 he bought the Fence Gate and says he loves the camaraderie of the catering business and the satisfaction of providing a service.

Customers at the Fence Gate, Wheatley Lane Road, Fence, have been enjoying Kevin's award-winning bangers since last summer.

British Sausage Week is organised by the 6,000-strong British Sausage Appreciation Society which aims to get schools, restaurants, pubs, butchers and people's kitchens savouring the great British sausage.

Relishing Kevin's creation, Christine said: "The standard of entries has been incredibly high but Kevin's dish stood out as the perfect marriage of delicious caramelised sausages, sublime onion gravy and delicately flavoured mash."

Kevin won £150 for his efforts, which will go to Barrowford charity The Rainbow Centre.