Hadleigh Butchers

I commenced work for Crussels as a Saturday boy when I was 11 years of age (1945) which was during the rationing era, and I think I received 2 shillings (10p) per week.

As far as I can remember Crussels remained there for about a year after I started and then they sold out to a Mr White (sorry I can’t remember his initials) and he stayed for approximately 2 years, and that was when Mr Gallacher purchased the business.   Mr Gallacher was in the Merchant Navy during the war, employed as a ship’s butcher.

Adjoining Castle Lane there were a row of buildings which were originally an abattoir, but they were not in use at the time I was there, so they must have been used before the second world war.

Mr & Mrs Gallacher had 2 daughters.  Elizabeth, who married one of the Stibbard family (undertakers) and Susan, whom I last remember as Mrs S Laysell of Raymonds Drive Thundersley.  It is many years since I have had contact with either of them.

The second picture is a photo of Gallacher’s Butchers shop similar to the one in the book, but with Billy Pasfield, myself and Mr Gallacher in the mid-1950s.

{Ed: For more local postcard views, see Hadleigh Postcard Memories; the view is even better in a beautifully crisp picture on Page 20}

Another view is here; with more information in the comments.