Countryside Magazine, February 2002.

COUNTRYSIDE SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR.

Lincolnshire butcher Ian Cocking is fighting the decline of village shops by taking a local food speciality on-line. Ian has launched a website to sell Lincolnshire sausages, offering shoppers the chance to buy on-line from a traditional village butchers and have their purchases delivered the next day in special packaging.
His butchers shop, B Leaning and Sons, is situated in Tealby. It is one of the oldest in the country, dating back to the 1860s, when the establishments secret sausage recipe was first developed. Ian used to work alongside Walter Leaning, the last of the original family to run the business, and when Walter retired, Ian and his father continued to run the business. Sausages are made daily on the premises using high-quality local ingredients of pork, bread, sage and seasoning.
The village of Tealby attracts a lot of visitors, and many have contacted Ian to request special deliveries after returning home to places as far afield as Scotland and London. And this is how the idea for the website was born. In recent years the village shop and post office have closed, but Ian was determined to keep Leaning’s going.
“ With a little help from my friends in the village and the support of the wider community, I hope to ensure that Leaning’s will be around for another 140 years,” says Ian.
Visit www.vikingsausages.co.uk (the name derives from the ancient footpath, Viking Way, which is next to the shop). Tel: 01673 838205.