Wednesday 7th July 2010
A Butcher’s Tale of Woe by Keith Weston
Today we had a very informative and humorous presentation by Keith Weston (left) of Rawlings & Kensett butcher's shop in Bookham. Keith has spent some thirty plus years in the butchery business, from sweeping the floors as a schoolboy in the local butcher's shop, to his present job as manager of the shop in Bookham.
As well as the part time job in the butchers he did a paper round for his fathers Newsagents but sadly on leaving school his father decided to go back to Somerset where he had been evacuated as a boy. Keith was not happy and the result was he was taken crying and screaming in the family Cortina a mark 1 version of course! They finished up in Chard and this Keith categorically stated, with tongue in the cheek?, that this town relates as alongside Tesco as the "pits"
When they were settled in Chard Keith had little support from the Labour exchange, he then wrote to 30 local butchers, only 2 replied but he got a job at a butcher's shop cutting and preparing a wide range of meats and products. This was indeed an apprenticeship and hence with hard work and a chippy disposition progressed up the promotion ladder to managerial responsibility.
BUT his presentation in spite of the meat pictures shown was not about meat preparation but the impact of health scares, government rulings and super markets impact, and how Keith resolved each situation, in a delightful, thoughtful way with many comments and punch lines.
This report does not pretend to cover the hilarious situations and cameos that Keith gave much to the amusement of the membership or indeed the David and Goliath attitudes of Environmental Health Officials or the Health and Safety brigade, Keith being the David did he have a bone in his sling?, if reported in print on this page may start a libel action!!
But it must be useful if one of the shops directors and indeed his wife happens to be a legal wise solicitor.
He came to Bookham, Surrey in in the late 1900's with much experience in the independent butchers trade. Unfortunately the sweeping changes in marketing in the UK in general with the advent of supermarkets with their impact on small businesses hit Keith's shop this was accelerated by the opening of a new Sainsbury store in close proximity. What with the convenience of a supermarket and lower prices of meat, trade dropped off considerably for independent butchers, such that many closed but Keith survived , but only after much publicity and local efforts from Keith to explain the low standards, high product costs from the rather bland section in the large super stores selling similar products, he became the David against the Giant, not all butchers won, as can be noted of the demise of the high street butchers within our towns.
The next blow was when for a time it became against the law to sell meat on the bone. Typical comments at this time are, Butchers will be prosecuted if they continue to break the law by selling T-bone steaks, oxtails and other cuts of beef on the bone, the Minister of Agriculture, warned yesterday. "People who boast about putting themselves above the law have to face the consequences " he said.
Under the ban, designed to protect consumers from the remote risk of contracting BSE from tissue attached to the bones, meat traders risk heavy fines and up to two years in jail if convicted of selling beef on the bone to the public. He also said it was a "myth" that most of the public was opposed to the ban - a view supported by the Meat and Livestock Commission which found in a recent survey that consumers marginally supported the Government action. But the shadow minister of agriculture, said: "The Government has managed to introduce a piece of legislation which is unworkable, unnecessary and unwanted."
The public wanted the right to choose for themselves whether to eat beef on the bone and did not need a "nanny". He said: "I am certainly not recommending that people break the law.... But it is clear from what the environmental health officers have said that the order is a recipe for confusion and inconsistency."
Government figures showed yesterday that the incomes of beef and sheep farmers year by year dropped further than even their own leaders feared in the wake of the beef crisis and due to the strength of the pound. This again hit butchers very hard.
Metrication was another drawback. Customers could still ask for their meat in imperial measure - pounds, ounces etc but the butcher had to convert this into decimalised quantities. Then there was the 'e-coli' scare which deterred many people from buying meat at all, especially beef.
After that foot and mouth disease prohibited all transport of animals and a tremendous cull of cattle which, in many case, was unnecessary. Later the petrol shortage also had a very restrictive effect on movement of both livestock and meat. Keith gave a delightful of his early morning trip cameo (imagination of his wife speaking in his ear) of his own fuel shortage and the dilemma of only finding fuel at a Tesco garage who are the architect of the demise of the high street butchers, happily his conscience prevailed.
One purely local misadventure in Bookham was when a 4 x4 vehicle was driven through the front window of Keith's shop severely damaging the window and newly furbished interior. Fortunately nobody was injured. This happened on a Friday morning and yet the shop was open for business again on the next Monday.
These are obviously but a few of the hazards which butchers have to contend with, but it is good to report that Rawlings & Kensett butchery is thriving in spite of it all.
Keith summed up his excellent presentation with the view that in his working life he has been more than satisfied in supplying the public with first class products in spite of all the above tribulation.
He then took a series of questions from the floor which more than illustrated his vast depth of knowledge of the meat supply trade and it was left to Pat Kavanagh to give a light hearted but very generous vote of thanks which the membership agreed in our normal fashion.
