There are two master craftsmen at work in the backroom of a Northgate Street shop, creating a much-loved product that flies off the shelves by the million each year.

For nearly 40 years, Martin Allen has been hard at work, producing 60 tonnes of something that the good folk of Gloucestershire can't get enough of each week.

For the past 27 years, John Armstrong joined him and the pair have since evolved their product that now comes in a variety of sizes and in 12 different varieties.

The product they create is the great British sausage and the shop they work for is the Gloucester institution that is Farmhouse Deli.

To call the rooms behind the Farmhouse Northgate Street store a food factory would be to decry the work of Messrs Allen and Armstrong.

Because very little of it is automated or machine made. It's just two craftsmen using the skills learned over more than a quarter of a century to use each and every day.

It's 50 years since John Clingan set up the Farmhouse shop on Northgate Street, selling sausages and bacon by the tonne to the good folk of Gloucester.

And while shopping habits, products and the Farmhouse empire have all changed - the Clingans now run sister stores in Southgate Street and on the Strand in Cheltenham, some things remain the same.

John Clingan's son Rob and daughter Jenny are the current directors of the business. Rob said: "we have kept things the same as we have always done, because it works.

"All of the food we produce is made on site at Northgate Street. "All our cooked meats are produced on site too and we have two of the crew who make all of our sandwiches each day.

"We have Martin, John and two others who make our sausages, sausage rolls, scotch eggs and pies.

"The machinery, what there is, is a bit more modern, but the process is the same, because it works and there's no point changing it.

"With two guys like Martin and John, because they've been here for so long, we can guarantee the quality of what we produce. They are experts at what they do."

The pair make 12 different sausage flavours, each made from fresh English pork, but their two most popular and the plain pork and the runaway best seller - their now-famous Gloucester Chipolata.

All are sold both for cooking at home, and cooked in their renowned sausage sandwiches, from the three stores.

Each one is hand-linked with staggering precision by either Martin or John, both of whom can probably link the perfect-length banger in their sleep.

"The secret of the perfect sausage is the people who make them, there's no doubt about that," joked Mr Armstrong, who joined the Farmhouse family in the early 1990s.

"We have a tried and trusted method of making them, using fresh ingredients and a blend of herbs and seasoning that we have honed over the years.

"We have 12 different varieties. The Gloucester chipolatas are in three sizes, the plain ones are two sizes and the rest are all one size.

"I start around 6.30am each morning and by 10am we will have done four or five mixes. There's 60lbs to a mix and around eight sausages per pound. It's an awful lot of sausages."

Mr Allen has been the Farmhouse's sausage maker for a decade longer than his accomplice, having been with the Clingan family since 1982.

"Nothing much has changed, we have always had a steady flow of loyal customers because we have such a good product," Mr Allen said.

"It's a family business and has a family atmosphere and a business I have always liked working in. Supermarkets were never my scene."

And judging by the sales figures that the Farmhouse still record, there is one market in Gloucester that is beyond winning over by the big boys.

As well as the million sausages per year, Farmhouse Deli produces astonishing sales figures for their sausage rolls, scotch eggs, pies and freshly-made sandwiches.

"We're selling 2-300 Scotch eggs, between 1,000 and 1,200 sausage rolls and 600 trays of faggots each week," Rob Clingan added.

"There isn't much of a drop off over the year either, but cold and crisp winter days are probably our best days for business.

"If it's dry and cold with a chill in the air, we need to eat good hot food to give us energy, so people want their faggots, pies and sausages.

"That drops off in the summer, but then we sell a lot more of the cold cooked meats and cheeses.

"The sausages don't drop off at all, with the barbecue trade added to it. But people like to eat sausages whatever time of year.

"Both John and Martin are both real experts. I have to step in when they are on holiday or away for a day and I get all sorts of stick because my links aren't as good and the width isn't as consistent.

"They do it perfectly each and every day, they are two masters of their trade."

For more information about the Farmhouse Deli visit FarmhouseDeli  on Facebook or @farmhouse_cooked_meats  on Instagram, call 01452 521784 or e-mail info@farmhousedeli.co.uk