The two rosettes that hang behind the till — 2015 and 2017 — keep getting mentioned in the local papers, and rightly so. When you’ve spent a hundred years on a farm, an award that says you’re the best butcher in the country isn’t a thing you take lightly.
What the award actually is
It’s the Butcher’s Shop of the Year category at the Lancashire Life Food & Drink Awards. Judges visit anonymously — sometimes more than once — and score on the meat itself, the cuts, the staff, the provenance, and the overall feel of the shop. We didn’t know we’d been visited until the nomination letters arrived.
What it changed
Honestly — not much, day-to-day. Steve still cuts the same way he did before the rosettes went up. Same butchers’ apron, same blocks, same dry-ager.
What it did change was the people who came through the door. After 2015 we had customers driving from Manchester, Preston, even Cumbria. After 2017 some came from further still. We’re a small shop on a farm down a single-track lane — that took a bit of getting used to.
The rosettes are still there
They’re not the only awards on the wall, but they’re the loudest. Come and see them. They sit above the till.
