Festive News 2017 Dec. 2014 | Página 31

TUPLEY BUTCHERS MISSING FACE AT THE BUTTER MARKET FESTIVE NEWS • DECEMBER 2014 • PAGE 31 CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR HEREFORDS FINEST FREE RANGE CHICKEN, PORK, LAMB AND BEEF Christmas is Covered! Free range turkeys, chickens, ducks and geese. Boneless turkey crowns, Christmas cockerels and hams. HOME OF THE HEREFORD STEAKBURGER FREE delivery within the Tupsley area 1 WINCHESTER AVENUE, TUPSLEY, HEREFORD HR1 1QJ For Christmas in Hereford TELEPHONE: 01432 265351 Find us on Facebook The experience is clear... After 25 years running Hereford’s leading restaurants, we continue to create a warm welcome at both The Merton Stuart Sheehan was already part of life in Hereford Butter Market before he left school. At 14 he was an errand boy delivering meat on an old fashion butcher’s bike. At 15, back in 1966 he was taken on as a trainee by butcher Jack Mailes, later becoming a partner and for the last 30 years, until retiring in March, the owner of what is probably the oldest established stall in the historic market. Ralph Lloyd, who worked for Stuart for 30 years now runs Mailes Butchers, continuing a business that has been at the very heart of the Butter Market, but for how much longer depends on decisions taken by Herefordshire Council. Stuart, a former chairman of the Butter Market Traders Association is scathing about the council’s stewardship of the market over the past 30 years resulting in an uncertain future. “The council has collected the rents but failed to invest in modernizing the building to bring it up-to-date to meet the demands of today’s retailing. Now, after many years of talking about refurbishing the market the council has run out of money and appears to be offering the property to the private sector.” He added, “I can remember the days when the old city council referred to the Butter Market as the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the city centre. It desperately needs smartening up and the hideous low false ceiling installed in the 70’s should be removed to restore the original charm of the building. But it is not just the long term future of the Butter Market that concerns Stuart. As a lifelong Hereford United supporter he fears for the future of the club and the Edgar Street stadium, where as a boy he ‘climbed over the fence’ to watch games, and would become a key figure in the Vice-President’s Club which played such a vital role helping to finance the team through its roller coaster years from FA Cup Giant Killers in 1972, promotions and relegations to the current ignominy of its future being fought out in the High Court. “I really can’t see the club ever again being feted as Giant Killers. Survival is the main issue right now,” he said. But at least one institution that Stuart has devoted himself to for the past 30 years is thriving. He has been one of the principal organisers of Hereford Lions Club’s involvement in an international youth soccer tournament in Holland each year, taking four teams of local young lads to compete – and often win – in the tournament. Volkswagen Group Specialists Volkswagen - Audi - SEAT Skoda Sales and Service A youn