Former butchers’ shop, Deganwy

Former Jones Bros butchers’ shop, 81 Station Road, Deganwy

This shop was built during the transformation of Deganwy into a residential area and resort for well-heeled Victorians, after the rail station opened in 1866. In the 20th century the shop was occupied by Jones Brothers butchers.

Photo of butchers shopThe business included a Jones Bros butcher’s shop in High Street, Conwy, and a slaughterhouse in Gyffin, Conwy. It was owned in post-war years by Mrs Quinton Hazell and managed by her cousin, Frank Sidlow. The photo shows apprentice butcher Bob Evans (whose recollections are in the Footnotes) outside the shop in the 1950s.

Today the Olive Grove Café occupies the premises, but various remnants from the meat trade are still visible – notably the overhead metal rails where sides of beef would be hung. The narrow door leaves at the entrance are fitted with old blue glass, possibly intended to reduce glare from the afternoon sunshine. The cold store occupied what is now the back of the café, and the toilet is where the manager’s office was.

Jones Bros supplied meat to the Deganwy Castle Hotel and to wealthy residents such as Mrs Tate, whose family fortune came from the Tate & Lyle sugar refining company.

Postcode: LL31 9DF    View Location Map

Link to The Olive Grove website (Facebook)

Footnotes: Personal recollections

Bob Evans of Deganwy was in the meat trade all his working life, after becoming an apprentice at Jones Bros in Deganwy in the 1950s. He recalls: “I was on the order bike at 11. There were wealthy people living in Gannock Park. They were old wealthy, not like the new rich.

“A big black Bentley, with a chauffeur, would come to the shop. Mrs Tipping would sit in the car. She always bought a target of lamb. It was one of the cheapest cuts you could buy!”

Martin Williams of Deganwy also worked at the shop: “In about 1954 I was a butcher’s boy on a bike. I felt like Granville from Open All Hours [a 1970s TV sitcom].

“Pushing a bike up Gannock Park was hard work. I fell off the pavement one day, and the meat went onto the road. I had to brush off the gravel.

“We used to get beautiful steak and kidney pies from Roberts of Port Dinorwic. They came on a petrol lorry. If I helped the driver unload, he would give me a pie. To a 12-year-old boy, the taste of that sliding down your throat was wonderful.”