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.”
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A small shop with a tiled front and a red awning, Wood Family Butchers still has plenty of original features including a Victorian hanging rail. But in other ways, this family-run business is a modern butchers that has moved with the times.
The shop has more than 8,500 members on its Facebook page, which is where Paul, 58, posts details of the latest deals. These include a £25 meat box and a mystery box for the same price.
Originally from Knowle West, Paul started working in his local butchers when he was still at Merrywood Boys’ School. At first, he just helped with the cleaning after school but he soon realised that a career as a butcher might not be such a bad idea after all.
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“I started at Peter Cook’s butchers at the top of Ilminster Avenue. I didn’t really want to be a butcher but I started to help in the shop and thought it wasn’t a bad job
“To be honest, being brought up in Knowle West back then it was pretty difficult to get work after school. My brother then told me about an apprenticeship at the Co-Op so I applied for it.
“I got the job as an apprentice butcher for the Co-Op and started in Broomhill. My first manager was a lady who was a butcher and she could carry huge forequarters out of the fridges with no trouble at all.
“She retired and then this young chap took over but within the first week he got the sack for stealing. They moved me to Henleaze but I didn’t get on very well there because the butcher was left-handed and I couldn’t learn much as it was all the opposite way round.
“I then worked in a small butchers shop in West Town Lane for two years but they ran off with the takings, disappeared one weekend and left me without a job.”
It was at this point in his career that Paul met the family who would go on to employ him for more than 20 years and then eventually sell the business to him. Local legend Anthony ‘Tubbs’ Webb ran the Shirehampton butchers for 47 years until he had bad cycling accident, which he has since recovered from.
Paul says: “I left ‘Tubbs’ a couple of times because I thought the grass was greener on the other side. I became a bailiff for a few years but the chap who took my job at the butchers left and ‘Tubbs’ asked me back so I said ‘yes’.
“Within two weeks of coming back, Tubbs had this terrible cycling accident so I ended up running the shop and then he sold the business to me in 2013. Tubbs has been brilliant to me over the years and he still comes into the shop.”
Paul now employs three full-time staff, a part-timer and two van drivers. Although, like most small businesses, the pandemic was tough, the shop has survived and a successful catering side supplies meat to a number of restaurants, pubs and golf clubs.
“Shirehampton is very unique,” says Paul. “It’s a bit run down at the moment as we’ve lost a lot of shops on the high street, including the florist recently, but if it wasn’t for social media, we’d really struggle and I’d have to lay off some staff.
“Because of the social media side of things, the age gap has dropped, too. We’re getting a lot more younger people shopping with us.”
And with the cost of living crisis really biting, Paul says the shopping habits of customers is already changing as people tighten their belts. People are buying cheaper cuts and making them go further.
“We’re selling a lot of mince at the moment, and cheaper cuts like boneless pork chops. Because I buy a lot in bulk, I can do deals for customers. We do the £25 meat packs which are popular and because it’s all fresh, they can always freeze some of it.
“We try and do as many offers as we can to make things a bit easier for people because times are really hard out there. I try to give back to the village what the village has done for me - Shire has been fantastic to me and my family over the years and I try to help the locals as much as I can.”
And big-hearted dad-of-three Paul also raises money for local businesses and schools, as well as handing out treats to the children of customers.
“I give vouchers for local events, I support local schools and we even raised money for one school to build a new playground. At Christmas and Easter, we give out selection boxes and Easter eggs - I try to give back as much as I possibly can.
“I still love this job and have so much fun with the customers and I know most of them on first-name terms. Many of them have been coming here since they were in pushchairs and now bring their own kids in.
“Shire has been fantastic to me and I wouldn’t work anywhere else. I’m sure this will be my last job and I’ve loved every minute of it.”
Wood Family Butchers, 24 High Street, Shirehampton, Bristol, BS11 0DL. Tel: 0117 9823210.
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