Dedicated to the best of home cooking freshness and taste, Alderton Ham Ltd, trading as The Country Victualler, was founded in 1973 by Richard and Jane Craven-Smith-Milnes. It produces for delicatessens, premium manufacturers and selected food service and retail outlets and its range includes top quality hams, pates, smoked meat, poultry and traditional Christmas puddings.

The company has won a number of awards including Millennium Speciality Food Tasting Award for ‘Best Ham’ and Supreme Champion beating over 1100 varied products from around the world.

The company’s offices are in the stunningly imposing Winkburn Hall near Newark where the Craven-Smith-Milnes family has lived since the house was built in 1695. The family has invested in a 4000 sq ft modern production unit, which they proudly describe as a kitchen, three miles away at Hockerton Manor, Southwell.

We take great pride in the quality of our finished goods. Alderton ham, of which we are the sole producer, is steamed then roasted with a marmalade glaze, gives it a succulent slightly sweet taste. With the exception of our hams (prepared with traditional curing preservatives) none of our foods contain any artificial preservatives or colouring.

Colonel Dickinson, late of The Royal Ulster Rifles, first produced the Alderton Ham for sale in his Suffolk village shop. Jane Craven-Smith-Milnes worked for the Colonel when he moved to London at the end of the 60’s. When he retired in 1973 she and Richard acquired the recipe and started to produce the ham for sale to a wider public. At first they operated from the basement of their London home, but, after a few years moved back to Nottinghamshire where the Country Victualler, Richard & Jane’s company is now based.

The Country Victualler is proud to have supplied Alderton Hams to Partridges of Sloane Street since their opening in 1973. Also Fortnum and Mason, Harrods and Harvey Nichols of Knightsbridge.

Richard more recently appeared on Rick Stein's Christmas Food Hero’s series, where Rick Stein visited Winkburn Hall to taste the now famous Alderton ham.