When Paul Wood left school at 14, working as a butcher wasn’t his first job choice but he’s now been doing it 44 years and says he still loves it. For the past decade, he has run Wood Family Butchers on Shirehampton High Street and he’s only the fourth owner of the shop in more than 200 years.
“It has been a butchers since 1805,” Paul tells me. “I’ve got all the deeds and certificates in the safe. It used to be a slaughterhouse and that’s why we have that big black door on the side - they used to drive the animals through Shirehampton village and into the yard.
“There were pens for the animals around the back. Where our big fridge is now is where they would slaughter them - in those days, it was all done on the premises but the laws changed years ago.”
