Butcher ‘reluctantly’ shuts up shop at age of 85

An 85-year-old woman believed to be one of Britain's longest serving butchers is retiring after more than 60 years.

Pat Jenkins began working at her father's butcher's shop in Bournemouth in 1958, aged 19.

The lease of Mason's Butchers in Pokesdown has ended, with the business facing a choice between closing or signing on for 10 more years.

Ms Jenkins, who worked with her son Andrew Jenkins, 60, said they were reluctantly shutting up shop.

She said: "Ten years would take me to the age of 95 – we might have kept going if we could just extend the lease year by year.

"I am going to miss the customers."

When she joined the business, the plan was for her to do accounts work, but she soon decided she preferred to be a butcher.

"It was just so unheard of," she said. "People would stop and look through the shop window and say: 'It's a girl in there!' It just didn't happen in those days."

Ms Jenkins said: "I think perhaps I was meant to be a butcher. I took to it quite easily. This is what I do. If you keep busy, you keep an active mind and keep going."

Andrew Jenkins said his mum would find it hard to adapt, adding "perhaps she will go for another job, have a career change."

He added that there used to be 11 butcher shops along a three-mile stretch of Christchurch road, but that theirs was now the last one standing.

Ahead of closing day on Saturday, 30 March, customers left cards and presents.

Eighty-year-old Brenda Baker, who had been a customer for the last 50 years, said: "I don't go anywhere else for my meat.

"I admire Pat for carrying on to her age and you can see she enjoys it. I hope she will have a happy retirement."

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