Butcher will be pleased to meat you

BUTCHER Mark Lowe is celebrating the successful opening of his traditional butcher’s shop at Hare Hatch Sheeplands by taking a leading role in a Christmas Launch Event at the plant nursery this weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday, there will be special food and drink tasting opportunities as well as wine, beer and cheeses as Sheeplands starts to celebrate 25 years of selling plants with the first of several Christmas related events.

Entry will be free and, if previous events are anything to go by, they will be hugely successful.

Mark Lowe’s arrival with his Millard and Lowe Butchers will be a boon for cooks looking for quality meat for their festive tables.

Mr Lowe said that he is on a mission to bring a traditional butcher’s shop back to the area, saying that they have been pushed out by the growth of supermarkets.

“Butchers shops in this country are closing at the rate of one a day,” he said. “I know of one town where 13 local butchers have now been reduced to just two.”

But he is is bucking the trend at the Hare Hatch nursery’s farm shop. Meat is delivered to him and he cuts and prepares on site.

He recently won Good Taste awards for his home-made pork pies and home cured bacon and it seems that he has a recipe for success.

He said: “Word seems to have got round that I am here and reviving the role of the local butcher who provides a personal service.

“Customer numbers have grown every week since I opened and so I want to play my part in the first of many Christmas activities at Sheeplands. I will be taking orders for turkeys as well as offering a range of meats and poultry.”

Hare Hatch Sheeplands near Twyford is the location for Mark’s first attempt at reviving the role of traditional local butcher, but he has a host of experience.

He got into the trade after leaving school as a 17-year-old without any qualifications.

“I found a job as a trainee in a butcher’s shop in the Midlands, where I lived at the time, and everything started from there,” he explained.

He will be helped in his mission by partner Becky Yapp and is realistic that the task will not be completed in a hurry.

“It will not happen overnight. It will take time for people to realise that there is now a traditional butcher available locally, but I believe that once people know about us they will support what we are doing,” he said.

“This area needs to have traditional old-fashioned butchers and I intend to fill that role.”