Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of choosing a shop that does whole animal butchering is that there is no room for doubt or any grey areas as to where the meat came from.

The butcher can tell you exactly where it came from, it’s feed, and everything else you may want to know about your meat.

If you have chosen to forego buying bulk delivered cuts from mainstream supermarkets, you are on the right track. Buyers and consumers, it is our responsibility to support sustainable practices.

The butchers tend to utilize most parts of the animal, thus limiting wastage and creating a more sustainable system.

This one's a given and probably why fancy restaurants charge an arm and a leg for the rare piece of steak you want to order.

Bulk packaged meat maybe stores and aged before it hits the shelves at the supermarket or delivered to your butcher who then unpacks and sells.

It is no secret that the fresher the meat, the better the taste – because these shops minimize the time between cutting and selling, the meat s generally fresher and better tasting.

The next stage of societal development from early human hunter-gatherer societies was the start of farming and animal husbandry taking over as food became scarcer. Rather than hunting for meat, humans found a way to keep animals in herds which saved time and energy from hunting. 

The domestication of animals was a long multi-generational process that began around 15,000 years ago and still continues to this day with animal farming and selective breeding. Some of the first animals to be domesticated were the wolf, whose descendants became the dogs we know today, and sheep. 

There is evidence of sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle having been kept as livestock around 10-11,000 years ago. During this time period butchery would have been part of the process of animal husbandry rather than a specific trade. 

During the Roman era, there is evidence of butchery existing as a specific trade. Before the Romans arrived in Britain the culling of domestic animals was still considered part of the process of individual families or small communities raising livestock for their own farming use as draft animals and food supply. As towns and villages began to grow that did not have the space for each household to keep livestock, so did the need for regular supplies of meat for larger populations. 

Evidence of a Roman commercial farm and butchers dating back 1,700 years ago was recently found in Devon. The site included a pit filled with waste products which suggested only the prime cuts were sold, and archaeologists reckon if the animals had been butchered by local peasants every part would have been used. 

The evidence also showed that the animals had been culled at a much younger age than peasants would have as animals were often used for ploughing, which again suggested a commercial operation dedicated to selling prime meat. This is further backed up by the existence of a road nearby which would have been ideal for transporting goods to the local town. 

In the Middle Ages butchery became one of the oldest official trades and professions and one of the first to form professional guilds in Britain in 1272. There are also records of butchers forming organisations as far back as 975. It became increasingly important during this time period to maintain high levels of cleanliness to prevent outbreaks of disease, as well as perfecting the craft of both producing choice cuts of meat and also maximizing the amount of meat that could be processed. However, meat during this time period was generally reserved for the nobility and wealthy due to the cost. For the peasant class it was often illegal to hunt on land belonging to members of the aristocracy which led to frequent poaching, and larger animals kept as livestock were not practical to slaughter regularly except for special occasions. Punishments for mislabeled or poor quality meat sold by butchers were severe, in an early if albeit violent form of product regulation. 

Eating meat became popular across all sections of society during the Victorian era. Increased urbanisation meant that people as a whole became more dependent on butchers and butcher shops, and the cost of meat was relatively far lower than it had been in previous generations. A lot of the cuts and roasting joints still used today began to appear, and there were products that could be sold for all budgets. Salted fat and bones were popular among the poorer members of society to add flavour and much needed calories to soups and stews, as well as the cheapest cuts of meat available, while the wealthy often indulged in roasting joints, the larger the better. The lack of fridges meant that a trip to the butcher’s shop was a regular occurrence for most and combined with all of the above, butchers were busier than ever. 

Modern butchery has also gone through multiple changes in a short space of time. The First and Second World War changed how butchers could operate due to rationing and changes in demand. In particular, the latter increased the output of pies and sausages that butchers produced as these required less meat to be used in making them. There was still a need for butchers and butcher shops however, as this was still the only place where meat could be sold. After the Second World War another period of industrialization occurred in order to reduce the need for foreign imports. Unfortunately, this also led to the closures of many butcher shops as meat became cheaper and readily available on supermarket shelves.

More recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in the trade and craft of butchery. A growing movement of people want to step away from products that have been mass produced by larger corporations in favour of a higher quality more bespoke product. Interest in developing sustainable food systems and reducing food miles, as well as the products that can be made in the U.K, has resulted in a new enthusiasm for local butchers.