Meet Sara Sturges, the 26th generation of England’s oldest family business — and the woman bringing it to America.
In 1515, the same year Thomas Wolsey was made a cardinal and Henry VIII sat on the throne of England, a man named Robert Balson rented a market stall in the “Shambles” of Bridport, Dorset, and began selling meat to his neighbors.
He probably didn’t think much of it at the time. He was just a butcher, doing what butchers do.
Five hundred and eleven years later, that same family is still at it.
RJ Balson & Son is the oldest continuously trading family business in the United Kingdom — a distinction certified by the Institute for Family Business. The shop has outlasted the Reformation, the English Civil War, the bubonic plague, two World Wars, and every economic upheaval in between. For most of its history, it operated from the open-air meat market in Bridport’s town square — a cobblestoned, sometimes blood-soaked tradition typical of medieval English market towns. In 1892, the business moved into its current and only permanent retail location at 9 West Allington in Bridport, where it still operates today.
Through all of it, the craft never left the family’s hands. The recipes — including a traditional pork sausage made with marjoram and thyme — have been passed down generation to generation, not through documents or manuals, but hand to hand, person to person.
That’s not a business model. That’s a bloodline.
The 26th Generation Takes the Wheel — in New York
Sara Sturges is a British-American and the stepdaughter of Richard Balson, the 25th generation master butcher who still runs the original Bridport shop. She grew up with this history, understood its weight, and made a decision: the story was too good to stay on one side of the Atlantic.
Earlier this year, Sara relaunched RJ Balson & Son USA from the ground up. She oversaw a complete rebrand, sourced new production partners to meet U.S. regulatory standards, and built a direct-to-consumer business capable of shipping nationwide. She did all of it while being, as she’s noted, the first woman in over 500 years to operate a branch of the business.
The results speak for themselves. In her first 100 days, the company generated more than $60,000 in revenue and shipped orders to 44 states.
And now, with two new product launches on the horizon and a booth at the NYC Summer Fancy Food Show, Sara is preparing for the next chapter.
What It Actually Takes to Keep a Business Alive for Five Centuries
It’s tempting to reduce RJ Balson & Son to its headline — “oldest family business in England” — and stop there. But the more interesting question is: how?
The short answer is that the Balsons never confused tradition with stagnation. The original market stall gave way to a proper shop. The shop adapted to new sourcing, new customers, new regulations. And now, in Sara’s hands, a brand born in Tudor England is being rebuilt for the American direct-to-consumer market, with modern packaging, an e-commerce infrastructure, and a story that finally has the platform it deserves.
The longer answer might simply be this: when what you make is genuinely good, and you genuinely care about how you make it, people keep coming back. Across 26 generations and 511 years, that’s the only strategy that has ever really worked.
Five Centuries of History Makes for a Great Story. Building a Business That Can Thrive for the Next Five Is the Real Work.
Sara Sturges is a member of Stride, our community for family business owners and the next generation of family enterprise. Her journey — navigating legacy, rebranding a 500-year-old name, and building something new from something ancient — is exactly the kind of story this community was built to support.
You can learn more about RJ Balson & Son USA at rjbalson.com.
