A young Sedbergh butcher has brought his much-needed craft back to the town, and fulfilled a number of ambitions in the process.

Jonny Harper, 29, has come full circle by opening The Meat Hook, on 2 Finkle Street, Sedbergh, in the same building where he was taken on as a young apprentice by long-serving butcher Garth Steadman.

Jonny is delighted with the reception his new shop, which opened on Friday 28 January, has received from locals:

"People in Sedbergh have been without a butcher since last September now, so I think people were desperate for it, but what makes us special is that we source all of our meat from farmers within 10 miles of the shop, so our food miles are really low.

The Northern Farmer: LOCAL: All of the meat comes from with 10 miles of the shopLOCAL: All of the meat comes from with 10 miles of the shop

"We don't specialise in any particular type of meat, but my main thing is lamb, as my mum and dad are sheep farmers, so we're using lamb from their farms."

Jonny said that the timing of the move was perfect for him for various reasons:

"I always said that I wanted my own butcher shop by the time I was 30, and I joked that I'd end up in the same butchers where I started out!

"I started as a Saturday boy when I was 13 under Garth Steadman, and he offered me an apprenticeship, which I took straight from school.

"I then went to work at Kitridding Farm Shop near Kirkby Lonsdale for about 10 years, then moved up to Penrith to a new butchers shop where I spent about 2 years, before this opportunity came up, so I took the bull by the horns and her I am!"

The renowned Garth Steadman traded in the shop until 2013, when it was taken over by another butcher, and closed in September 2021, and Jonny said that it was a big job getting the building back up to scratch:

"I first looked around the shop last September, and the owners of the building were doing a lot of work to it as it was run-down - I think the old butchers had maybe lost their way a little bit, but we stripped everything back and started again.

"It's now nice, clean and modern - we're really pleased with the outcome.

Jonny said that he'd planned for an early January opening, as he wanted to stay with his employer until after the busy Christmas period, but finally opened in late January:

"We've had great feedback from customers so far and it helps that I'm local and everyone know my wife, Sarah and me.

"We're still working on the bakery upstairs so unfortunately we don't have hot pies available yet - I was hoping to have them in the hot counter downstairs this weekend but we'll have to wait a little longer.

"When we do, I'll be running the shop, Sarah will be helping me and my mother will be baking the pies, so its a real family affair."