A family-run butcher in Kempston will close for the last time on Saturday (25 March) when its owner, Clive Ashpole retires.
PJ Ashpole and Son has been serving the community on Bedford Road since 1932 when it was opened during the Great Depression by Clive’s grandfather, Joseph Ashpole.
After Joseph’s death in 1974, Clive and his father Peter took it on and continued in partnership until Peter’s death in 2012.
Clive has been working in the family business for 50 years and says that despite it being hard work, it’s been very rewarding serving the Kempston community.
“We had some great times, it was a great industry,” said Clive.
However, at 67 he says that the recent hike in energy prices has meant that the shop can no longer sustain the overheads.
“In the 1960s there were a hundred butcher shops in Bedford, but since mass production began, the industry has been struggling,” he said.
“Brexit, grain prices affected by the war in Ukraine and now rising energy prices – it’s a cut-throat industry now.”
During the shop’s heyday, Clive recalls the week before Christmas when things would be so busy that he would sleep on a camp bed in the shop to keep on top of the orders.
“We’d have so much to do that it was a matter of working all the hours, getting about three hours sleep in the shop, getting up and getting cracking.”
As the generations have changed, Clive says it’s become harder and harder to find people to work in the business, meaning there’s no one to carry on following his retirement.
“It’s been hard work – 12, 13-hour days,” said Clive. “But the memories bring a smile to my face. I’m looking forward to my retirement, but I will miss our customers – they kept me going.”
