Preaching to the converted

The Saul family butchers are also looking back with pride at 80 years of serving the public - but in their case it involves a steady stream of innovative produce. Chris Saul is the current head of the business, but it was his grandfather Frank who got the ball rolling in 1926, just as the worse effects of the general strike of 1924 were beginning to wear off.

Frank bought the shop at Spratton, Northamptonshire, which came with farmland and Friesian dairy cows which were walked through the village each morning for milking in the yard in front of the shop's abattoir.

His sons Peter and William showed no interest in following in following in his footsteps, however, even though they could have claimed a 'reserved occupation' during World War II. Peter, Chris' father, joined the Northamptonshire Regiment and often found himself behind German lines thinking that run-ning a butchers back home was maybe not so bad after all. Eventually, he agreed to pick up the baton.

Chris was Peter's Saturday boy, and gained early insights into a highly competitive business. There were three butchers in a village of 800 residents. He also eventually ran the mobile shop, one of the first ever seen in the county.

His mother, aunt, grandmother and a full time butcher ran the shop while the mobile was out twice a week. "Dad did not pressurise me - it was my duty to help during school breaks," says Chris. "He had experienced the same reluctance to go into the business."

When he attended Mander College at Bedford, he realised there was more science to meat retailing than getting bones white or weighing the seasoning for the sausage mix. And it was there that a lecturer suggested a full-time course at Smith? eld College, run by that doyen of meat trade education Fred Mallion .

Chris' father agreed, provided Chris came home weekends to work on Saturday, so off he went down to London - staying at first in a homeless hostel, but at least it was three meals a day, seven days a week for £3 13s 6d.

After gaining his Institute of Meat Certi?cate quali?cation, Chris, like his grandfather, also went behind enemy lines to work for the Nanz supermarket chain in Struttgart. It was there that he learned a great deal about adding value to meats, ready-meals and sausages.

The experience paid off, and during the 1970s the business back home ushered in a wide range of new products, including ready-meals, that increased revenue substantially, especially as there was an increasing number of families who were all out during the day, with less time to cook.

An outside catering business was developed, specialising in barbeques and hog roasts, which gave Chris the opportunity to promote his more unusual and often award-wining recipes. He also won the catering franchise to sell pork and baps at the Northampton Saints rugby club, and his pies are a regular favourite among England and Scotland rugby internationals.

In fact, his pies are perennial favourites among rugby professionals The Daily Telegraph once wrote how one match was "as good as Saul's pork rolls at the gate".

Elsewhere, Chris backs the Farms for Schools charity, and 20p of each steak and ale pie gets donated to the cause. He is also famous for his pork pie wedding cake - his most recent sported three tiers with Yew wood pillars turned on a lathe. The publicity in the local press and TV was worth thousands to the business, says Chris. He has just spent £30,000 refurbishing the shop with Hiper Lider counters, new refrigerators and a large chiller. He is also getting a £3,500 grant from Daventry Council for a new floor.

Unlike his late father and grandfather, Chris is not going to keep on going until he is worn out. The shop is now a limited company in order to protect Martyn Boshell his full-time butcher and director.

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