Credit – Andy Compton
A popular Kington butcher is celebrating 40 years of ‘meat and greet’ on the high street.
Butcher Paul Lewis bought his shop at 49/50 High Street in 1982 from the Creswell family after having a taster for the career as a 14 year old ‘butcher’s boy’ for Baxters.
“Once I started that Saturday job I just wanted to leave school and I knew what I wanted to do,” said Paul.
He left school at 16 and remained with Baxters until he was 18 before trying his hand in the construction industry.
But in 1982 he bought his butcher’s shop from the Cresswell family.
“When I first started there were three butchers in the town and now there is only me left.
“We have a metal pole in the middle of the shop and I have grandmothers coming in who can remember going around and around that pole as a child, as well as children who do it now.
“We were really busy during Covid when the supermarkets were running short of stock and people came to us and we are always very busy at Christmas, we have five of us working here then, when its usually just me and my daughter Sarah, the chief sausage maker.”
“I do find a lot of my customers cook from scratch and we have had a turn up in trade in the last few weeks because the supermarkets have put their prices up so much. By coming to us we can advise on alternative cuts or if they want a larger or smaller joint for Sunday lunch, the supermarkets won’t do that.”
Paul uses lots of local suppliers including Springfield Poultry near Leominster for their free range chickens, Welsh lamb and black beef from Weddel Swift in Bridgend and he said he is fortunate to supply meat to many local pubs and hotels including the Fforest Inn at Llanfihangel Nant Melan, and the Royal Oak, The Swan Inn and Kington Golf Club.
He is planning on staying at the shop for another couple of years and would like to stay a couple of days a week with whoever takes over. But the classic car fanatic said he would also like to spend more time showing his Triumph Stag and gardening.
Paul, who has been using his ‘Meat to please you, pleased to meet you’ slogan for years has been overwhelmed with messages and kind wishes since celebrating his 40th anniversary with balloons at the shop and messages from well wishers on social media.
Daughter Sarah Gray said ‘ The family are proud of him, he has worked so hard 6 days a week for the last 40 years, only having 3 days off for his appendicitis. He is the most hardest working man I know, he is really inspiring’.
Paul also aims to write his experiences as a butcher in a book which he intends to call ‘ Nightmare on High Street’.
