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Stamford
Butchers
Coningtons, St George’s St
Brown’s
60 High St
Jean Orpin & Sue Lee look at the history of butchers in
Stamford including one property in constant use for nearly
200 years
I
Peppers, 3 Red Lion Square
28
STAMFORD LIVING MARCH 2015
N Medieval times the Butchers Row
meat market was held weekly in a
space outside St Michael’s church.
This was known as the Shambles. In
1751 it was an open market hall. In 1801
when the town was becoming fashionable
and elegant, the corporation bought the
White Lion Inn to enable them to build a
new covered Shambles off the street. The
building (now the Library), was designed
by William Legge in a classical style with an
Stamford shop at York Museum
open front supported by pillars. Inside was
a fish market and butter market and there were 53 spaces for butchers. The building
stretched back to Broad Street. Animals would be brought there and butchered to sell
on market days: with no refrigeration this was essential.
By 1846 the butchers were moving into individual shops. The 19th century was
called ‘the golden age of the High Street’ - each street would have a baker, a butcher
and a grocer. In Whites Trade Directory, 24 butchers were listed in Stamford and the
Shambles building fell into disrepair.
Butchers kept their carcasses cool with ice bought from an iceman until refrigeration
became commonplace. The floors would be tiled and covered with sawdust. The walls
were tiled, often with pictures of animals. Slaughter houses would be behind the shop
and carcasses were hung on hooks. Meat was eaten three times a day in wealthier
households. The less affluent would buy large joints on Sundays which would then
provide meals for the rest of the week. Bacon and hams were salted and cured.
The shops were family owned, some families owning more than one shop. In
the 1820s members of the Lumby family occupied five premises around the town.
Coningtons were in the town by the middle of the 19th century. At the end of the
century, they traded from at least three shops including the ones in St George’s Street,
pictured here, where they continued until after World War I.
Probably the most famous butcher’s shop in Stamford was
at 60 High Street. From 1879 W. Buckworth traded there until
1900 when it was taken over by R. H. Brown. J. Grant had the
shop from 1920 until the 1930s when Woolworths bought it with
adjoining premises. The timber framed shop was dismantled
and taken to York Castle Museum where it is still on display. Our
photograph shows the shop decked out for Christmas 1913.
Towns provided their own abattoirs after the second war and
the corporation provided one near Alma Place off North Street.
This was run by Mr Johnson with the assistance of Mr Hibbert as
clerk. All meat for Oakham & Uppingham was also slaughtered
here after the Monday market. It closed in the 1970s.
With refrigeration, butchers could bring back the carcasses
to cut up in their own premises. They would also deliver meat
firstly by butcher’s boys on bikes, then horse and cart and then
motorised transport.
In 1969 there were still a large number of shops, but by
the 1980s supermarkets opened, more women went to work
and fewer people shopped in town. Most family butchers
disappeared. Shopping habits continue to change however:
people liked the pre-packed meat but the recent scares
concerning the provenance of meat has brought customers
back to the High Street.
Red Lion Square
Red Lion Square and the area around was a
white meat market from early medieval times.
This may account for the preponderance of
butcher’s shops in the vicinity. By the 14C rows
of shops were built and there were lanes called
Butcher’s Row & Byhindback. These were
all cleared before 1800 and in the 19C new
properties were built around the Square.
Number 3 Red Lion Square was a butcher’s
shop in the occupation of two families, the
Pollards then the Peppers (see picture) for a
hundred years until Annie Pepper died in 1922.
Numbers 8 to 10 were built by the Marquis of
Exeter in 1818 with three stories and cellars
underneath, ideal for butchers, and two of them
did become butcher’s shops. Number 10 was
occupied by George Harr for about 50 years
at the end of the 19th century and then for
nearly as long in the 20th century by Joseph
Woodhouse and family.
Records suggest that No 8 was a pork
butcher by 1822 and this was probably the
premises of Isaac Lumby. In the 1860s it was
run by Mary Strickson then George Pepper
Burrell was the proprietor for a short time
before Louis Featherstone took over. The Halls,
who also had another butcher’s shop, took
over the business in 1898. The photograph
shows the shop in the early 20th century
before Harold Nelson bought the business
from C W Hall in 1924. In the middle of the 20th
century Number 6 Red Lion Square was also a
butcher’s shop.
Above: Halls at 8 Red Lion
Square
Left: Nelson’s Pork Pie Award
1927
Below left: Nelson’s Pie Factory
Below: Nelsons at 8 Red Lion
Square
Nelsons
Harold Nelson was not born into a butcher’s
family. His father worked on the railway and
had the rather splendid name Thomas William
Horatio Nelson. (He came from Norfolk
and there is a slight possibility that he was
descended from an uncle of Admiral Nelson).
Harold and his seven brothers and sisters
were born and brought up in Spalding where
Harold got a job as a butcher’s assistant when
he left school. It seems that he had trouble
establishing his own business in Spalding but
did well when he came to Stamford.
In particular he built up a reputation for pork
pies which were made in the cellar below the
shop. By 1927, he had begun to win awards and
over the years gained over 50 gold medals.
Before he retired in 1952 Harold Nelson had
set up another shop on Queen St in Uppingham
and both shops were well-established when
they were bought by Frank Gilman. Frank
retained the name of Nelsons and soon
expanded the business with shops in North
Luffenham, Barrowden and Oakham. In 1956
a second shop was opened in Stamford on
the corner of Broad St and Ironmonger St. In
the 1970s the village shops were closed and
replaced by a refrigerated mobile service which
continues to provide for customers within a
fifteen mile radius of Stamford.
In 1959 Nelson’s Pie Factory on North
Street started production in modern premises
where the quantity could be increased while
maintaining the quality. Today the Pie Factory
still supplies pork pies to their shops. Many
other products have been added such as
chicken & ham pie, cottage pie, lasagne, cooked
meats and fruit pies.
All the meat in Nelsons’ 4 shops - in
Uppingham, Oakham and the 2 in Stamford
- is bought from local farms or markets and
they still regularly buy the winners at local
Christmas Fatstock Shows. A member of the
Gilman family is still in charge and they remain
traditional butchers but with a modern outlook.
For example, Nelsons are known far and wide
for their sausages – some people won’t eat
any others! – and these can now be ordered
through their online service. Delivery of all
products, in specially insulated boxes, is quick
and for that special day you can even have a
Pork Pie wedding cake made from three layers
of pie – either pork or a variety – which will
serve 100 to 135 people.
• (Old photographs courtesy of Stamford
Survey Group, Connie Beadman and Guy
Gilman)
Ask Leo would like
to hear from you if you
have more stories about
Stamford’s butchers.
Email them at
[email protected]
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