after 50 years in the meat buiness ,it was hard work but i enjoyed it all. and you never stop learning.. old ways were so much better. people took pride in their work.
They absolutely are. That’s why I only buy meat from my local butcher. I’d much rather put money in the pockets of my local butcher than big multimillion pound businesses and they’re greedy shareholders.
thank you so much for showing that beautiful old butcher shop. i've been in the meat business over 50 years I.retired i was a chef for awhile , but the last 45 years i was full time in the meat business i retired as a meat market manager . when i started in the meat business i worked for Publix , 1970 , back then we would get 1\4 fronts and hinds of beef and whole lambs and hogs . and all your chickens came in whole you had to cut them up Now a days half the butchers don't know how to do any of that stuff, if it don't come cut up in a box they don't know what to do with it ..Thanks again god bless and have a happy holiday season, .✌
Scott, I thank you so much for this video even though it brought tears to my eyes; for your enthusiasm, your love of tradition and compassion. I am a chef and baker and I own a grocery store and deli that is 118 years old. My walk-in refrigerator, deli case, and a 3 door refrigerator are from the 1930's. I restored them with new compressors from my refrigeration guy (an old-timer half retired). My wife and I live in the house behind the store with a couple of gardens and I have a smoke shed. We have owned, loved and worked this place for 19 years. We are now 72 and...counting. The town has changed in the last few years and the neighborhood that the store served has disintegrated into air BNB's. A litany of new food and building regulations have made it difficult to "restore" anything or maintain traditional methods of food production. I'm German and allegedly can't make sauerkraut without a HAACP form. I have acquired a black belt in anger management. I am "dancing this to the end of love." I'll keep baking till then...and making sauerkraut! There's a video "The Shop" Seamus O'Rourke....He says it well. My store has a happy one from about 15 years ago. This was beautiful. Thanks again!
I've been a butcher for 35 years and I just retired. Very very few coming in to replace the guys leaving and the skills I have and the pride of the craft and the experience leaves with me. We are a dying breed, the carcass is too heavy or the work is too hard, I've heard it all. It provided a good, honest living for my family but my body says that it is time to quit.
My dad was a butcher and it always was vastly underappreciated artform in some cases. Scott has done a great job promoting that fact. Enjoy your retirement!
You are right mate. Because when you retire your skills will retire with you. It’s a crying shame you can’t pass your skills and knowledge onto a young apprentice who could keep the art of butchers going and keep the business alive. It’s the same in my industry as a HVAC engineer. No companies are taking on apprentices anymore, putting them through college too gain they’re qualifications and experience. As a result like butchery the industry is suffering with lack of engineers because many are retiring and there’s no fresh blood coming in to replace the older generation. All companies are bothered about now is profit, not thinking forward about bringing young blood into the industry, because all they see is a apprentice for the first few years is a financial drain on they’re profits. It’s pure greed, but they’ll pay for it in the long run when they can’t get engineers in the future. At 44 years old I don’t know many who are younger than myself in my industry. What does that tell you?
It sucks to see this happening but unfortunately todays society is making it more harder for the local butcher and local TAFE/adult school for some who don’t know what TAFE is don’t offer training unless employed and so hard nowadays to get a job either to old or live to far away or don’t wanna give you the pay compared to a young person so unless things change unfortunately in next lot of years will see most local small businesses pushed out. Definitely will be a dying Art 😢
@@THEWOLF_SAMURAI sadly RB I fear you are right. Too many family businesses are going too the wall because they can’t compete with the big greedy supermarkets…
I only met my cousin once. He had a tidy shop butchery. Made Black Pudding in the store front every Friday, big sign warning those who may have felt a shock for the vat there at the front. I was 9. It was the 70s. Some moments in time I wish I could go back, and then Scott thank you, in a way you have brought me back. And if you do go back for a visit, or Peter if you read these comments through, thank you for letting Scott in, and showing him about to show us about. Very much appreciated.
Glad you were given permission to go through and video, what a neat old place! Full of history and antiquity as well as skills gone by. Our ability to feed ourselves is fast disappearing so I'm glad I was at least at the tail end of that era and can still take care of ourselves. An aside: Governments world wide have the agenda to fulfill for a future of servitude in offices i a technological world, but only for the few since automation will do the labor. Most people will be gone except for those who will live a life of servitude and scarcity with little freedom. Pity for those of the future who yearn for self sufficiency and freedom. Thanks for the video, we are fortunate...rfor now.
In less than 50 odd years nothing will be the same as the good old days, damn world has gone and got itself in way to much of a hurry for no good reason 😞
We have been eating Burwell streak for years. Cut fresh from the bone. The best steak ever always cut beautifully by Peter. We then moved away from the village and only occasionally dropped by for our steak. We did it last week and saw the sign. So sad, but I’m sure we’ll deserved retirement. Thank you (and well done) for documenting the butchers. A true gent a true butcher and will be truly missed.
I seriously cannot get over how absolutely every piece of architecture, butchering/shop appliances/equipment are as they were 50 years ago. Going about your work day in exactly the same way with exactly the same tools and process as your grandfather did at your age while the world advances around you makes me feel some type of way💔 the butcher’s that time forgot!
I thoroughly enjoyed this Scott, it took me back to the days before we had huge supermarket chains. Whilst change is inevitable it saddens me to see highly skilled local community serving businesses like this become a thing of the past.
So true. The big supermarket meat industry destroyed the local butchers industry with they’re cheap mass industrial produced, inferior meat. That’s exactly why I only buy meat from my local butcher who’s been in business in our town for the last 50 years. He took the business over from his dad back in the 70s and thankfully he’s still going strong.
There were at least 5 butchers in the village - you can still see the hanging rails on former premises. I've been in the village for 37 years and was always delighted to see pensioners coming in for a pork chop, two sausages and two slices of bacon. Always a long queue at Christmas and Friday/Saturday - brilliant sausages and hand cut rump steak to any size. We still have a bakery, two doors down from the butcher with a barber in-between. We are very lucky with the variety of shops and pubs (3) for a relatively small village. Is this the thin end of the wedge? Our bank closed a few years ago, then the building society but we still have a Post Office. Our roll call for a village of about 6,000 is: Baker, Barber (2), Nursery, Doctor, estate agent, pubs (3), garden centre, chippie, coffee shop, haberdashery, newsagent, filling station, British Legion, post office, Co-op supermarket, village museum, allotments, physiotherapist, optician, hairdresser (3), car sales, motor repairs (2), primary/ junior school plus loads of sports and voluntary organisations. We're lucky and I'm sure I've forgotten something like the Chinese which closed for Covid and hasn't reopened. We're in the middle of a square (?) with Cambridge, Ely, Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds at each corner, with the A14 nearby and yet 5 minutes away you're in the middle of nowhere!
What a really sad video,, one hundred and fifty years of history, finished! Gone forever. A place you new exactly what you were buying, Just fresh meat
If I had the money I would buy that place just to keep it there and if I could I would try and keep it open as a butcher only a few more years and it would be a museum. Thanks for sharing this video
How does a butcher's shop close? I'd kill for a butcher near me. All I have is corporate grocery stores. It's an absolute shame that people settle for substandard food these days.
Sad to see it passing and the irony is that here in New Zealand the corner butcher is making a comeback with people looking for the local traditions and small run sausages that the supermarkets are just not capable of doing. In our area there are four independent butchers making everything from sausages to hams and salami Sadly they are not permitted to kill their own meat for sale and must buy through the large corporates The cost of setting up a small abattoir is prohibitive.
Scott a thousand thank yous for this video, absolutely brilliant. I could just imagine the hard work in the slaughter house I witnessed and even helped with in the 50' and 60's. school boys wouldn't get near today, never hurt me in fact I learned a bundle in those days. I heard the emotion in your voice and I felt the same way. Those days are gone in the name of progress, I question the progress. You and a few like you are real Butcher, the supermarkets have production lines, not personal contact between cutting floor and the customer, no real pride in product and quality, the people you serve are lucky. the local butchers that do continue to serve the public are few and far between now but they are valued by those they serve and I hope they can all keep going. Thank you Scott for what I think is a Gem of a Video.Very special thank you to Peter!
My father started as a butcher in 1937 at the age of 13. He had to leave school because his father had passed away, his mother was taken into hospital and his 10 brothers and sisters were taken into the workhouse. So he left school, started work, paid neighbours to help with his brothers and watch them until he git home from work. His mother did return home but he worked until retirement age. This video really takes me back to being in the shop as a kid.
Wow your father really had to step up. That's incredible of him. Shows how difficult things were for families back in the day if the head of the household died.
It's sad to the old shops close, especially now when it's coming back, at least here in Sweden. You buy locally killed animals that you can meet before they get slaughtered. What's wrong with that? And what happens if you eat it all up before the next slaughter? You eat your veg or buy from a "supermarket". There's nothing super about them!!! The meat tastes like cardboard. We need a proper abbatoir/butcher in every village. As well as a baker, etc. When is this going to happen all over? It's meat/herring and tatties/neeps!!! The Baltic sea is already ruined so you can't get herring anymore, not enough to make fermented herring (don't knock it, it's good eating!). Proper food, that's all I'm asking for. But I guess that's too much to ask for :-( I'm glad I live where I can get some decent food, but then there's the rest of Sweden. Poor people, never knowing the taste of proper food...
Reminded me of Mr King the butcher of Timaru in 1955. I was 7 years old and would cross the road to his shop every morning to buy one penn'orth of mince for my kitten - the well-scrubbed shop with the big block, thick sawdust on the floor and rails with large portions of animal hanging on hooks. But the unforgettable smell of sawdust, disinfectant and meat - a single whiff would speed me right back!
Two very old butchers shops, and business have closed in the last 4 months within 7 miles of Lincoln. One used to supply the whole county with sausage and pork pies, good whole sum food, not the processed crap people buy now. I'nt progress great?
This was brilliant too watch Scott, but it’s a crying shame that this age old business has closed. The butchers industry needs too take on more apprentices and young blood too replace the older generation who are retiring and taking they’re knowledge with them. My local butchers in Rubery all the butchers are older guys coming too retirement age, they even put a advert pit for a apprentice, but all young kids want too go into now are things like I.T and you’ve guessed it, social media, and influencing🙄
So sad, luckily I'm self taught,started trapping game at 12,then progressed to shooting small and large game,gaining lantra certificates in small n large game,n getting game dealers license,haven't got slaughter license,i support local butcher and get all meat in I can't legally shoot or process, sad to say it's a dyeing trade,tried passing skills on to my son,but has not interested,so my skills will go the grave with me,sausage making,pork pie making, haslet,etc,
Scott, are there any more pictures from the past that show this place in all its glory? Would be nice to compare what was to what is now! Sterling work as always and hope to see the sausage machine in action in a future video!!👍👍
Memories when I was a very young lad in the 50,s . Befor immigration. Regards from Western Canada . Mother said it was the butcher in our village who taught her how to prepare meat and cook it while we were still on rations. .Cheers Scott
Great video Scott, I bet there was 1000s of sausages gone through your new machine. Will you be doing a video using it by any chance? Keep up the good work
Thanks Scott it's so great to see and hear the way things were in the past when people had time for each other what a nice life it was thanks again see you and your new OLD sousage machine in later video s ,
Me and my dad used to go to hurrles all the time and he’d pop into the bakery next door called lanes. Going to miss Peter he was always a cheerful chap. Thank you Pete the meat
OOH, careful not to upset the WOKE world of today!! Worked with a similar chap in a corner of Kent. Similar to this scene, couple of outbuildings out the back of the shop. Lairage there as well. He did his slaughtering there. 1, sometimes 2 cattle, 4 pigs & 6 lamb, a week, all from local farms. Had them delivered Monday, for next day slaughter. Remember, all hands on deck for that. Fridge's were like DR. Who's tardis......tiny doors, but big on the inside. Bloody thick doors too! If I remember, knacker man used to come on Friday's to pick up hides & inedibles. 48 years in butchery now. Taught/ worked with some amazing Master butchers too. I remember one, SGT. Major Dunn. ( He was in WW2) reminded me.........." In almost every other process....You assemble something !....in butchery, you disassemble it!!" True words.
Thank you for recording this amazing piece of Burwell history! My dad’s family grew up in Burwell, his mother & possibly her mother would have used this shop regularly. I never knew what was behind the shop.
Being Isleham born and bred, I was brought up on Jack Hurrells Sausages as it was the village they had there second shop. There sausages where famous for miles around. I can remember as a child seeing the sawdust on the floor and the meat hanging on the rails. my Grandad worked in Burwell and would call in the shop on a Friday on his way home for liver, sausages and a joint for the weekend. Jump forward 30 years, and I've just passed my apprenticeship in butchery at the ripe old age of 41! I work for a on site farm butchers shop called TFM Butchers in the village of Isleham. All our meat is born and reared on our farm, and everything arrives back as side and is butchered on site. We meet Peter a couple of week back as we brought quite a few bits and bobs from him including the tub on wheels and boxes of hooks 😂😂 He is such a lovely gentleman, and has been telling his customers to come and shop with us when they closed, are Sausages trade has gone through the roof over the last couple of weeks. If your ever in the area again we would love to show you around our little farm and shop.
Sounds lovely that your keeping the age old art of local butchery alive. And it is a art. Sadly not enough youngsters are coming into the industry these days. The local butchers in our town all the butchers are 50 plus and I fear when they retire they’re skill and knowledge will retire with them. Fair play on becoming a butcher🙂👍
Thanks for this video Scott it was very interesting to watch and see the old timey butchers shop and slaughter house so interesting that the whole lot was on the one property.
Very cool to see, but a real shame that is an era gone by. The meat you get in the grocery these days is just garbage. Can’t even get most cuts any more.
Thanks Scott!!! I am not sure why he spray painted your sausage machine or the meat hooks? The meat hooks would have to be cleaned of paint to be used again.
It's interesting to see this from across the pond. I know the meat processed there is fine, but man you could never get away with a place like that here. It would never pass health inspection. Our health departments are over zealous nuts though. What an absolute shame that place is gone. What a magical place in a magical location.
It isn't that bad here, Chris. If I drive north rather than south, there's a bona fide butcher shop where 2-inch-thick Prime steaks can be had for a fairly decent price. No one sells beef for less than the supermarkets so I don't buy from them.
Progress is an oxymoron. This was bitter sweet to watch. We lost this some time ago yet it is hard to put a finger on when we went wrong. It will be interesting if we ever get it right again.
@@kayallen7603 . But Kay it’s a myth that supermarkets are cheaper for meat than your local butcher. Plus if you tell your butcher your on a budget and can only afford so much he will find you cheaper cuts that you can. When I was on the long term sick and out of work for over a year I was on a severely budget of government benefits. I told my butcher I was basically skint and he would save me the cheaper cuts that are just as good but not many eat these days due too our meat culture. Skirt or spider steak for example a steak cut from the inside of the neck is super cheap. I use too buy those for less than a fiver🙂👍
I just did the maths Scott... At 50 years doing 75kg a day for 5 days that would be 375kg a week, 19,500kg a year and 975,000kg or 2,145,000lbs of sausage. Nearly 1million tonnes of sausage..... wow
Like a kid in a candy shop! I would've had a hard time leaving all that equipment behind. That scale with the brass name plate...they just don't make stuff like that anymore.
That’s was fascinating Scott. A snapshot of when folks always bought their butcher meat local. Thanks for sharing 👍All the best from Scotland 🏴 GD
I worked in a Pork Butchers in Leeds in the late 70's, early 80's. I recognise so much of this old stuff which was old even then. Brought back some memories.
Thanks for sharing, Scott! What a precious (while sad) video this is. So many great crafting shops go down the drain without further notice. This vid makes a notice, of what we've lost, here. (I'm from Germany. But it's the same, here. A great vendor at our local market got saved just last minute, some years ago. I even telephoned with the previous owner to find someone to keep it up. They found a new owner. But I was desperate! They had been around since before I was even born. An insttution.)
Supermarkets have killed off the high St. I moved down here 1986. In the town there was 6 Butchers shops, 4 Bakers a fish and game shop and about 6 greengrocers. A market 2 days a week over 50 stalls. Now just 1 Butchers and if you're lucky about 12 stalls on the market.
50+ years ago, I spent my summer holidays here in Burwell staying with my cousins. Jack Hurrell was still alive then and had a Horse and trap. I remember him taking me and my cousin Chris out to another village on the trap. We stopped at a pub and waited for Jack outside. He brought us a coke and crisps outside while he had a pint inside. Children were not allowed in pubs in them days. My main memory was watching a cow and a sheep being butchered in that Abbatoir. It wasn't an unpleasant memory, as I was amazed at the skill of the butcher. I really don't know if it was the guy in the video as it was so long ago. Happy days though.
Thanks for posting this Scott, truly enjoyable video bringing back memories. It's always sad seeing the old shops close down. I remember in the late 80's going to the village butcher on a Thursday with my nan for 1/2 pound of Sausages and a 1/4 pound of Bacon. Great video mate
That was depressing to think 150 plus years and nobody to take it over. That would be like closing the Statue of Liberty because nobody gives a damn. He'll I'm gonna mix a drink.
Very sad. Save the sign! Thankfully, the farmer from whom we buy our beef does his own slaughtering. It is that personal relationship you build that is so important. He has been known to call me apologizing that my order would be delayed because he felt the meat wasn't good enough for sale. And I can ask for special cuts as well. Friendliest people. Alert the Foodies! Get the restaurants involved! Teach your sons to cook! Retro-fit your kitchens to cook meat using a rotisserie. Every little bit helps.
Worked in a butchers/small goods factory in my youth in the mid 80s in new zaeland until I got a mechanics apprenticeship it had a lot of the same features as that butchers you have saved the history of it for the next generation well the ones that like meat anyway outstanding work many thanks
I'm lucky that we still have a local butcher (TTHL, the initials are the members of the family) that has his sons in the business too. The quality of their meat is far better than any supermaket and they're fairly competitive on price considering that the meat is all local.I bought a 3KG leg of lamb today for £41 that's only a couple of quid more than Tescos and I know that this lamb came from less than 25 miles away from a local farm. Not from the other side of the world! Support your local butcher.
Awesome. Thing one of my locals is shutting down. Soon. Woman at slimming world. Works there got the bad news other day about it. Similar aged company. Finished off by energy bills. Such a shame.
Yea, baby awesome stuff! I wish it could be that way now. If I could only go back! Awesome trip around the the butcher house!! You are awesome! Very special that generation!!!
OMG 😲 That takes me back to the early 80s working as a boy in the local slaughter house Working for a big meat company now still a slaughterman in Cornwall.. Just watched that cleaver of yours being brought back to life what a beautiful thing.
omg. i live 10 miles from burwell, what a shame🤣.....my dad and me used to use a old village butcher /slaughter house like this one, just over the border in norfolk.......great days, we used to buy 30 or so (late lambs) and fatten them over the late summer and winter. drop the lambs off then pick em up a few days later all cut up boxed with the weights on the boxes. had to give it up after dads stroke, but great times.......thanks for video
Brilliant bit of history so sad to see it destroyed primarily by heavy handed and unwanted EU bureaucracy, Pink bland flabby meat trapped in plastic is what's available now to the majority. Real meat and produce is still available to those who seek it out. Keep posting and looking forward to seeing the old sausage machine churning quality bangers out..
So sad - that place should be kept, as is, and set up as a museum, especially as a "working museum" doing short butchery courses? People always want to learn, it's just that they don't want to do a full apprenticeship for various reasons but they can and will attend say a weeks course on many things! I missed my chnce as my grand father was a family pork butcher, but being a young lad I had my mind on other things ~ he'd retired (no family members to take over the shop) when I was ready to settle down. ah well . . . . . thanks for showing us this Scott and to Peter etc. for showing you around.
Very sad, but thanks for the video, I think documenting these thing is very important. I find myself engrossed in historical footage often. No butcher shops, no cobblers, the world is going to hell in a hand basket...
