WOODFORD GREEN: Butchers faces down threat of chop

3:13pm Friday 16th May 2008

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A CENTURY-OLD family butchers which just a few years was fearing the chop in the teeth of competition from supermarkets has bucked the trend thanks in part to TV chefs.

W D Chapman, on Woodford Green High Road, has been supplying people with high quality locally-produced meat since the 1890s - and has seen a new obsession with locally sourced produce turn round a once-threatened market.

Susan Chapman, 47, has helped to run the business with her two brothers Richard, 67, and Peter, 63, since taking over from their grandfather who started the original premises in Woodford Wells.

She said: "The supermarkets have certainly had an effect on trade but that has improved in recent times. About ten years ago most of our customers were elderly who always used a traditional butcher.

"But now we are getting younger people coming in with a conscience about where their meat comes from. TV chefs have helped us a lot with that as they always tell people to support local businesses."

The firm's concern with all things local means there is no place for imported New Zealand lamb or Scottish beef.

Susan said: "As a child I have recollections of following my father around the farmers' markets of Hertford, Epping and Waltham Abbey as he was often chosen to judge the cattle shows.

"These markets are now all gone but we continue the same principles of only using local produce."

"There's certainly a difference for humane treatment as the closeness of the slaughter houses and market meant that the animals didn't have to travel so far."

And Susan is adamant that there is a niche among people in Woodford Green for communit-based outlets rather than the faceless multinationals.

She added: "People have started to understand that meat shouldn't be bright red like it is in the supermarkets and so we leave all our cuts to hang for as long as possible.

"They have become more acute with their understanding of local produce. Plus they can come in here and ask for a leg of lamb to be boned or a crown roast which is something special."