Name: John Hartshorn

Business: Hartshorn Butchers

Opening Hours: Open at Oswestry Indoor Market on the Bailey Head, every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday between 8am and 3pm

When did you open and why?

I OPENED here back in 2003. I was working in the mobile phone business in Oswestry, and my dad was running a stall up here for Derek Jones.

On my days off at the phone shop, which would generally be a Friday, I was coming here and giving him a hand. I got a bit fed up of working with mobile phones and eventually decided to come here to work with him and that’s how it all started for me really.

From there on I got to a point where I opened my own shop and started up my own business.

Why in this location?

I’m FROM Oswestry originally, and as I said, I worked here with my father years ago, and this location up here at the market became available after Derek decided he was giving up the stall.

I took over from him here and got my stall open. It’s a good spot here on the front of the market, but obviously it can be a bit quieter nowadays with the way things are on the high street – there doesn’t seem to be the footfall there once was.

It’s great up here as long as it isn’t too cold!

Tell us about your business

Ultimately we do traditional butchery.

We buy our meat whole piece, and we always try to make sure it’s sourced as locally as possible.

We have full-sized beef and lamb, but we also make our own products like pork pies, sausages, bacon and black pudding.

So we’re very traditional as a whole, and I think people like that.

We tend to have a very loyal customer base.

We’re actually quite famous for our pork pies which we make here ourselves – we’ve had people come from all over to try them.

What is your proudest moment in business?

I CAN remember the first time I came up here to work on my day off, my dad had all my own equipment for me like knives and other various things.

Then when I came to work here after finishing at the phone shop, my dad had kept all of that for me, so he must have always thought I’d come back to work here some day.

A few years back I picked up the Oswestry Businessman of the Year award, so that was obviously something to be proud of – I remember my dad telling me he was proud of me.

Any strange requests?

We DON’T have too many requests that are strange as such, but being a butchers you do get asked for all kinds of cuts and types of meat.

For example, if someone wants brisket on the bone we can do that, we do foreign cuts of meat like bavette.

We do beef short ribs which is a bit of a different cut too, so we do get asked for, and often provide, things that you can’t get everywhere.