After 42 years in the butcher's trade Tony Richards has closed down his shop in Liskeard, and is looking to the future selling clothes rather than meat.
Tony, who ran his shop in Market Street for 30 years, buying it from Jack Chalice back in l970, ceased trading as a butcher on Christmas Eve.
He started working with John Rapson the butcher when 17, and later was employed by an abattoir, and then by the firm now known as Jaspers at Treburley. Tony was literally born into the trade. He was born during the Second World War in the living quarters of his grandfather's butcher's shop at Newton Abbot.
Car parking
Thirty-three years ago he bought his first shop, from Guy Olver at Menheniot, three years later buying his second in Liskeard. He ran them together for a while, before selling up in Menheniot.
At one stage the Liskeard shop sold 5,000 pies and pasties a week as well as meat, employing a staff of l6.
However, Tony explained that the opening of supermarkets and the loss of car parking in the town led to the decline of the bakery side after 12 years of success, and during the past years he has concentrated on selling meat.
He said: 'I was probably one of the last of the real butchers who buy a whole carcase and then cuts it up.'
He feels that his business was hindered by the lack of car spaces in Liskeard, especially near Market Street, and said that because meat is heavy customers find it difficult to take back to their cars, along with all their other shopping. He suggested parking meters be installed in Liskeard, with a one hour stay, as he feels customers are willing to pay parking fees if they can leave their vehicles near the shops.
His former butcher's premises are now under-going renovation, and are due to open as a surf shop – mainly selling brand-name clothes and accessories and skateboards - in the spring.
The shop, Urban Surf, is to be run by Tony, along with his step-daughter Meeta Pitts and stepson Martin Perry.