Interesting memories of Brigg butchers' shops long ago, including Turner's on Queen Street, have come from Denis Laycock, who has supplied two pictures of the latter premises - one of which dates from before the Turner family took it over.
"My own memories of Turner's go back to Saturday mornings in the very early 1950s when I was sent for a pound of sausages," Denis says.
"This usually involved a long wait as the queue stretched for several yards out of the doorway in Garden Street, and then along Garden Street.
"The front door of the shop led into the other half of the premises which were, of course, the butcher’s shop of the legendary Fred Jeffrey. This had earlier been one of the shops of ‘Dickie’ Richard Mundey, a very well known character in the town; the name is still synonymous with quality butchering in Brigg.
"The words under the windows - English Meat Only - are of interest. The development of refrigerator ships altered the meat market considerably in the 19th Century, leading to the establishment of ‘chain’ stores which were a threat to the old established butchers."
A national company which had shops in Brigg was able to sell cheaper meat.
"The answer for the traditional shops was to make out that the frozen foreign meat was of an inferior quality - hence the English Meat Only sign," Denis says.
"There were, of course, at least two slaughterhouses in Brigg - one down Bridge Street behind Peacock & Binnington’s and one in Grammar School Road. Teddy Mundey was still operating his own slaughterhouse behind his shop in Bigby Street until at least the early 1960s."
Considerable interest was generated earlier this month when Brigg Blog posted a piece about Turner's - 20 years to the day since it served its last home-made sausages and closed for ever in April 2000.
