Butcher retires despite boost in trade ‘like Christmas every day’

A Norfolk butcher is putting down his knives after 50 years – to pursue a more gentle hobby as a wildlife photographer.

Michael Fuller, 67, has worked with his hands since the age of 17 and has now decided to put them to a slightly different use – and pursue his love of taking photographs of local flowers and butterflies.

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Mr Fuller, who has owned The Village Butcher, Litcham, near King’s Lynn since 1996, is selling the premises in Church Street for offers in the region of £90,000.

He started out after leaving school for a firm of butchers called Dewhurst, working his way up from being an apprentice to the store manager in Dereham. But in 1996, Mr Fuller, who lives in Swaffham, got the chance to own his own shop when the butchery came up for sale in Litcham and he’s been running it ever since.

And he reckoned Covid actually saw an increase in trade with people choosing to buy meat from local butchers rather than supermarkets. “It was like Christmas every day for me for three or four months but it’s starting to go back to what it was before. With supermarkets, they rely on their delivery and when that delivery comes in and runs out, they have to wait for the next delivery.

“If you come in to my butcher’s shop for, say, sausages and I’ve run out, I can make them for you. Supermarkets were running out of food, they couldn’t cope. More people were also cooking at home and feeding their children three times a day so I noticed I was selling three times as many sausages and two or three times as many burgers, quick food.”

Mr Fuller has decided to retire because he recently had a knee operation and was advised standing for long periods wasn’t good for it. He had planned to travel to Canada to see one of his daughters who lives there.

“I’ll really miss the customers, I’m a people person, but I love taking photographs, both locally and abroad. I can’t travel at the moment because of coronavirus but I’ll enjoy taking photographs around Norfolk. It may take a while to sell the business but it would really suit a young person who has been working for someone and wants to have a go on their own without it being too big a business.”

The butcher’s shop is for sale with Cruso & Wilkin who describe it as a single storey business premises with a front shop, cold room, cutting room and store

room.