From The Cheltenham Chronicle and Glos. Graphic, Saturday August 9th 1969.

A few weeks ago, our “Chef of the Week” Mrs Norman King, licensee of The Teddington Cross Hands, said how important it was to have a good butcher. One of the oldest, if not the oldest, family butchers in Cheltenham, Waltham’s of Suffolk Parade, celebrates its golden jubilee this week.

There is still a place for the family butcher, contends the present owner, Mr Eric Waltham. “While we cannot always compete with price, we can compete with service, delivery and what is important, with the choice of meat.” “Our customers prefer to choose the meat we recommend. When the meat is pre-packed it is difficult for the average housewife to tell the difference between a good cut or poor. The meat might look red and tasty but that doesn’t mean that it is a good cut,” he said.

Although the housewife’s shopping habits have changed completely in the last 50 years, quality meat and cheerful service have always been the tradition at Waltham’s since his father, the late Charles Waltham, opened the business on August 8th 1919. Smaller families, more leisure, more money and more cars have revolutionised her weekly shopping.

Fifty years ago , the average Cheltenham family of about ten would have solemnly sat down every Sunday to a 10lb English roast or leg of mutton – today there are few pre packed joints more than 1 ½ lb and the 1960s style family of four buy stream-lined 3-4lb roasts.

Even the custom of cooking a roast on Sundays was changing. “The Sunday Roast was the pattern for most families up to 1939, now only about half of my customers still order it,” said Mr Waltham. Many housewives are now cooking chicken on Sundays, or preparing the roast for Saturday so that the family can go out for the day on Sunday.

Compared to 50 years ago, the modern housewife is more price conscious and spends a smaller proportion of the family budget on meat. “People are now buying by price not weight. They eat less meat preferring to spend more of their money on clothes, entertainment and motor cars.” “Forty years ago a butcher’s assistant, earning 50s (shillings) (£2.50) a week would buy for his family 8 to 10 shillings (40 to 50p) worth of meat, a fifth of his works wage.”

The convention of buying English meat for a Sunday roast was also changing. “Fifty years ago, few housewives would have considered ordering imported meat. Today, about 80 per cent of lamb sold is imported, and about 60 per cent of beef.”

Waltham’s has always had a reputation for good quality English meat. Until 1955, it was the last family butcher in Cheltenham to be allowed to slaughter on the premises and the only one to be given a licence after the restrictions of the second world war.

They bought from local farmers, and at the Gloucester, Tewkesbury and Andoversford markets. Even the meat trade has altered radically in the past 50 years, says Mr Waltham. “With technical advances it has become scientific.”

To keep abreast of the changes, Mr Waltham went back to school at the age of 35 to study the Institute of Meat’s craft course at the North Gloucestershire Technical College. He went on to take the Institutes Diploma and Advanced certificate in meat technology. “I realised I hadn’t learnt enough. In fact, I am still learning.” Mr Waltham who is a prominent member of the Cheltenham and District Meat Traders’ Association, their treasurer and past president, now in turn passes on his invaluable experience and knowledge by teaching the present day generation of young apprentices at the technical college. This friendly, personal method of retailing goes hand in hand with long service. Two of his staff have been with Mr Waltham for over ten years, Mr. M.Wates for 15 and Mr A.Gibbs for 11.

Also completing the family approach to the trade has been his wife, Hildegard. Whether Walthams’ will continue for another 50 years as a family butchers no one can foretell. Their daughter, 17 year old Monica, is hesitating between becoming a dental surgeon or a model, and there is no son to carry on the name.