Burgess Hill butcher thanks community for kindness: shop closes after 118 years in business

Owner Richard Wood, who is 83, closed the doors of G Wood and Son for the final time on December 30.

Mr Wood, who lives with his wife Patricia in Plumpton Green, was still busy working in the shop on the last day.

Customers have given him many farewell cards and bottles of whisky and good luck messages as a token of their appreciation. The shop had served the town since 1905. The Woods businesses began with a shop at Alfriston in the late 1800s and once included three shops in Burgess Hill alone, with others branches at Ditchling, Earlswood and Hove.

A message to shoppers last year said: “It’s with great sadness we will be closing our doors for the last time on December 30th. Thank you for all your support over the years. It’s been a pleasure serving you all!”

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Early deliveries were made by horse to places like Bolney. There is a story that in the 1920s the delivery man often got drunk. As he slept it off, the horse was so familiar with the route that it found its way back to the Burgess Hill yard. People travelled from far afield for the shop’s renowned sausages and high quality of meat. The shop closed because after Mr Wood’s retirement there was no-one to take it on.

Generations of local people became customers of the shop. But several butchers in the Mid Sussex area have closed in recent years, forced out by competition from supermarkets.

Mr Wood said: “We had lots of cards and quite a few bottles of whisky, and people popped in to say goodbye. It’s nice to know that people were satisfied that we have done a good job. I have been trying to find someone to take it on, but couldn’t. We had a very solid core of loyal customers but it just wasn’t large enough. Seven butchers have closed down locally in recent times, and I think in future there will be fewer and fewer.

“Having said that, I would probably have kept it going if I wasn’t 83. I have been on my legs too long, standing all day.”