Tendring CAMRA - Harwich Sausage Festival
Saturday 1st November 2025
Come hither to the historic seaport of Harwich and witness the medieval* spectacle of sausage throwing, as grown men and women try to hurl seasoned pork projectiles as far as they can. Following on from this fabulous frivolity, three fantastic local inns throw open their doors for the gathered masses to test the wares of the finest butchers of the Tendring Hundred and determine the public's favourite sausage, all washed down with the choicest real ales and ciders.
* might not actually be true.
Join us for another another fabuolus day celebrating the great British sausage, with some delicious real ale, cider and cheery banter, all held in the historic taverns of Harwich. This is how we do it:
- 11:00 The Pre-meat - muster at the Stingray in Church Street for the warm-up.
- 11:25 The Procession - walk from the Stingray to Harwich Green.
- 11:30 The Throwing - people throwing sausages as far as they can.
- 12:00 The Tasting - three pubs, serious sausage sampling and voting.
- 15:00 The Result - head to the New Bell where votes are counted and the public's favourite sausage is announced.
Our Competition Butchers for 2025
Our famous public blind tasting competition takes place in the Alma Inn, the New Bell Inn and the Stingray where 9 local sausages will be made available for tasting.
Here is the list of competing butchers for 2025:
- Becky's Butchers, Badley Hall Farm, Badley Hall Road, Great Bromley CO7 7UU
- Chas Bower Butchers, 96 Kings Avenue, Holland-on-Sea CO15 5EP
- Frinton Road Butchers, 121 Frinton Road, Holland-on-Sea CO15 5UP
- Pier Avenue Butchers, 59 Pier Avenue, Clacton-on-Sea CO15 1QE
- Ragmarsh Farm Shop, Manningtree CO11 1US
- Ramsey Master Butchers, Ramsey CO12 5EY
- Shaws Farm Meats, Dovercourt Market and Manningtree Markets
- Smiths Butchers, 14 High Street, Brightlingsea CO7 0AE
- St. Osyth Butchers, 2 Spring Rd, St. Osyth, Clacton-on-Sea CO16 8RN
The Sausage Fringe
In addition to our public blind tasting competition watch out we also have the festival fringe, showcasing more fantastic local sausages.
Head to the Crown Post, the Globe and Samuel Pepys to check them out.
Facts and Figures from Previous Years
The Harwich Sausage Festival Champion for 2024 was the Sticky Toffee Apple Sausage from Becky's Butchers in Great Bromley.
The throwing competition in 2024 was won by Gareth "Gruff" Francis with the first throw of the competition, measured by the expert volunteers at 105 feet. Second place went to last year's champion, Peter Swift, with a throw of 97 feet and 6 inches. Joint third place went to James Ravinet and Todd Rothwell with throws of 91 feet and 6 inches.
The Harwich sausage throwing record stands at 171 feet, Todd Rothwell's gigantic throw in perfect conditions in 2019. Prior to that the record was held by Harwich Sausage Throwing legend Nick Aldridge with a throw of 150 feet and 6 inches set in 2014.
A Brief History of Sausage Throwing
Somewhere around 2008 at a beer festival planning meeting someone came up with the idea of a sausage throwing competition, we can't be sure who it was or exactly when it was suggested but it resurfaced year after year until 2011 when we decided that it simply had to be done in order to get it off the agenda!
So in 2011 we ran a throwing competition for Tendring sausage producers after which their fine wares were entered into a blind public tasting competition held in three traditional Harwich pubs. Such was the success of this format that it has become a regular event held on a Saturday in early November to coincide with British Sausage Week.
The Format
The Throwing Competition commences at 11.00 with some warming up (of participants, not sausages) at the Stingray in Church Street before we make the short walk to Harwich Green for 11:30 where each contender throws a "standard" raw sausage as far as they can. The throwing all takes place on Harwich Green and is taken very seriously with a great deal of athleticism, psychology and giggling. A cricket umpire adjudicates to prevent cheating and Tendring CAMRA "Sausage Marshals" carefully measure and record each throw.
Once the throwing competition is complete the action moves to three traditional pubs - the Alma Inn, the Stingray and the New Bell Inn where the sausages will be ready for the public to taste over the next couple of hours. Each pub will have supplies of some of the anonymous sausages and a supply of voting slips. Members of the public are invited to tour the pubs, sampling sausages and soaking up the atmosphere. For a vote to qualify all the sausages must be scored and the fully completed voting slip returned via one of the boxes made available at the pubs. When the competition ends at 14.30 the votes are collected and counted in the New Bell Inn (aka "Sausage HQ") where the winner will be announced at 15.00.
If you love the atmosphere of the Great British pub and are partial to a gourmet sausage we warmly invite you to join us. Even if you're not entirely sure we would welcome the opportunity to convince you that the combined talents of butchers, brewers and publicans makes for a fantastic day out!
There is no charge to watch the throwing or join the public sausage tasting but we respectfully ask that you buy drinks and perhaps some food as you visit the pubs. The butchers have donated their delectable produce free of charge so if you like what you taste please seek out and support them!
Transport
If you're travelling from away it's really easy to come along to Old Harwich by public transport and sample some sausages whilst enjoying a couple of beers. Both Harwich Town railway station and bus station are within a couple of minute's stroll of the Stingray and the start of the festival and all the pubs can easily be reached on foot in a short circuit of the old town.
Train passengers should alight at Harwich Town (HWC) station. Train timetables can be found here. Rail replacement buses will be operating from Colchester.
Bus passengers can catch Service 3 from Clacton or Service 103/104/102 from Colchester. A Journey Planner can be found here
A bit of a Taster
Just in case you've never witnessed sausage throwing before, we found this video from 2017 on YouTube to give you a bit of an idea. It gets much more serious after this.