In January 1924 they moved to ‘Rock Hill’ and took over the lease which included some land. This was done so that grandmother and the girls could run it as a guest house, and the boys could expand the butchery. They built a small slaughter house at the back. This was a great advantage as they could control the quality of the meat sold and hang it for the correct time.

A bullock would cost £25 then, in 2008 it’s £830. The policy was, and still is, to sell the best quality available. This payed off as the business began to flourish. They delivered as far afield as New Polzeath, Amble, St Kew, and St Kew Highway, by horse and wagon, cutting the meat as they went. They also had a small shop in the Pavilion building.

Cattle and sheep had to be purchased from Wadebridge Market and sometimes St Column, then driven back by men on bicycles with a dog to help. My father would normally do the buying and drive them back to ‘Rock Hill’ where they could be rested in the fields for a few days before slaughter.

As the lease would soon run out at ‘Rock Hill’, it was decided in 1929 to purchase land and build a bungalow and shop on Rock Road. We still live and trade from the bungalow called Trehaven today.

During the early 1930s sales increased. In a good week they would sell three bullocks and thirty lambs. Two men and a boy were employed at the time. With no refrigeration available, an ice box was installed in the shop. They had to go each morning to meet the ferry and collect the ice in hessian sacks from the ice factory in Padstow with a horse and cart; no time could be lost coming up the hill or the ice would melt. It was then put in the top of the icebox to melt and cool the small amount of meat that they would hold for sale in the shop.

The bulk of the meat was still not cooled and was placed in the hanging room at the slaughterhouse, being fat it would keep well, then it was cut up on the horse and wagon as they delivered. It’s hard to imagine just how hard they worked in those days, cycling to Wadebridge, driving the stock back, collecting the ice, slaughtering cutting and delivering, looking after the horses……how did they have the time?

As time progressed through the 1930s refrigeration was installed and two Morris vans were purchased for delivery. These were good years in the business and continued to be right up to the outbreak of the Second World War. I was told it was still faster to deliver orders in the village with the bicycle, so this was continued.

When the war started in 1939 the slaughterhouse was shut down by government order and they had to purchase from Wadebridge Abattoir which had just opened and father said the quality of the beef was so bad he was ashamed to sell it. Meat was rationed like most things. This business, like many, suffered considerably.

Able-bodied men from the village were called up for military service including our employees and Dudley. Father then started to rent fields around the parish, and started a small holding using the slaughterhouse and other outbuildings for 5 cows, pigs, and all types of poultry.