Norfolk Deli Co's Jules Jackson, left and Gary Dickenson, right, pictured with their Worstead sausage and Stan Appleton of Worstead Guild of Weavers. Photo: Steve Adams

A special smoked sausage helped to serve up a sizzling two days for the second year of a relaunched village festival.

And the rain held off until Sunday afternoon as more than 8,000 paying customers and thousands of accompanying children flocked to Worstead Festival.

The festival saw people enjoying a mixture of local produce, rural demonstrations and outdoor theatre.

And visitors were also able to taste a unique sausage, made by Jules Jackson, managing director of Norfolk Deli Co, to mark Worstead’s links with Dutch weavers.

Mr Jackson, who calls himself a “maker of stuff”, produced the rookworst – which means smoked sausage in Dutch.

He said: “We like to reinterpret classics, so when we got talking to the people from Worstead, they asked us to invent something for them.

“I did some research and found a few different recipes. What makes it different is the historic Dutch connection to the spice runs to Indonesia. I’ve used spices from Indonesia, but paprika and garlic give it a twist for the English palate.”

On Saturday, North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb launched a heritage trail to highlight the village’s wool trade.

The trail was put together as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations by Worstead Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.

A display board for the trail was unveiled, showing 40 sites across the parish for visitors to join guided walks during the festival weekend.

Sunday’s rain arrived at about 3.30pm, with the tug of war – won by Badersfield’s Diplomat pub team – forced under cover. But no other events were affected.

Festival chairman Jon Lowe said: “We’ve had a terrific weekend. We are pleased that the weather held out for most of the weekend.

“People have carried on supporting the festival, and we look forward to receiving their feedback on how they thought it went.”

Festival committee member Gay Webster said the visitor numbers were “about the same” as last year, and added: “Families seem to have enjoyed it. There’s plenty for the children to do.”

After a long run, the festival ended in 2009, with a downsized music and arts festival taking its place in 2010.

In 2011 and this year, the festival has returned on a smaller scale.

Ms Webster said: “The overriding aim is to make it accessible for families. So it’s not commercial and it’s affordable.”

The festival is run by volunteers, with all money other than staging the show going into a charity pot to benefit Worstead and the surrounding villages.