A NEW family of butchers take over a popular business in Chirk on Tuesday.

Jamie Ward's Traditional Family Butchers will take over from McArdle’s Family Butchers at the shop in Church Street.

McArdle’s opened up their business in Chirk in 1979, and the family spent 40 years in the area before closing their doors for the last time on Saturday.

However, the people of Chirk will not be without a family butchers for long, as Jamie and his family are set to open up the shop tomorrow as they move their business to the area.

Along with his wife Janet and children Dave and Tori, Jamie will begin business in a second shop after spending just shy of 20 years working on the monthly Farmer’s Market on Bailey Head.

Jamie said he hopes to keep up the good reputation the shop has developed through the work of the McArdle family.

“We had the chance to get into retail in Bellis’ Garden Centre in Holt about five years ago, so we’ve been there learning our way into retail butchery, but we’ve always wanted somewhere like this – we’re a family business and so are the McArdle’s,” he said.

“It’s nice to take over from a family business in an area which is local to us – we were born and bred in Whittington so Chirk is just down the road for us.

“We now want to make ourselves a part of Chirk and part of the community.

“It’s great because we’re coming into a shop which already has a wonderful reputation, it’s a busy shop ran by a family who source their meats locally – which is exactly what we do.

“Essentially, what we’re about is selling local meat to local people.

“We’re not going to go in and change a load of things, we wouldn’t want to upset a lot of customers – if it isn’t broke don’t fix it.

“At the same time, we do want to put our stamp on things too.

“It’s a case of taking what’s already good and trying to build on it.”

On behalf of the family, Jamie gave thanks to those who have been regular customers over the years at the market in Oswestry.

He added: “We were instrumental in setting the farmer’s market up back in September 1999,” he said.

“It was 19 years and four months we spent selling on the market.

“We found we had a product people liked and we found we quite enjoyed working at the market, so it worked well for us. It helped us a lot as we would never have been able to have a shop near our home because we lived in the middle of nowhere.

“The markets were great, the support we’ve had from local people has led us from a market stall on Bailey Head in Oswestry to now having two retail butcher shops.

“We had a lot of support from the council, but the support from loyal local customers has been a massive help.

“I know families who have been coming to us at the markets every month from the very beginning – you can’t ask for more than that.

“This for us is progression and a massive opportunity.”

Mark McArdle spoke ahead of the last day for his family at their shop and said they felt mixed emotions at leaving the shop.

He added that he believes passing the shop on to Jamie and his family is the right choice.

“It’s a big step for us – we’ve felt a mixture of emotions leading up to the last day here,” he said.

“There’s a lot of history in the shop here, but the day has arrived when we never thought it would – we thought we’d be in Chirk forever.

“I think we’re definitely handing over to the right people, and I’m sure Jamie and his team will look after everyone in Chirk like we have.

“I really hope the get the support from the people like we have and hopefully they will feel a part of Chirk just like we have.”