United Kingdom-A Butcher recalls the good old days.

UNITED KINGDOM-A BUTCHERS TALE.

"Bill Ashman took over the butchers business at 1,Egerton Place on the death in 1947 of my grandfather Willie F.Selleck. He had been born on Plympton Ridgway in 1872 and at an early age was apprenticed to Sampson Revell who had a butcher’s shop and slaughter-house on the Ridgeway.

"In 1896 Willie Selleck married my grandmother, Florrie Bluett, and moved to 37, Anson Place, St Judes to set up a butcher’s business on his own account. They had three children, the last in 1904 being my Mother who I believe was born there.

"Running an own account business with a family to support meant you sank or swam on your own effort and my mother told me that grandfather, who was a stubborn and hard man, would go into Plymouth meat market and buy a side of beef, carrying it back to St Judes on his back. Can’t imagine anyone working that hard nowadays.

"Some time after the birth of my mother the family moved across the road into bigger premises at 1,Egerton Place. I was born in 1938, and as we lived in Beaumont Road my grandparents were only a short walk away, so I spent a lot of my childhood with them and in the shop.

"My lasting memory of Willie Selleck is rarely ever seeing him without his bowler hat which he always wore in the shop and house. He never retired and collapsed in the shop aged 74, the bad winter of 1947 being too much for him. He traded in St Judes for 50 years and was a well-known local businessman.

"There were a number of shops in Egerton Place in the 1940s, but my favourite was Peters the Baker. Gran would send me along to get the bread, a lovely warm loaf wrapped in tissue paper. She would cut off a warm crust and butter it for me. No bread since has ever tasted so wonderful.