A family of butchers have hung up their meat cleavers after about 60 years in a town.
Holts butchers in Newland Street, Witham, is something of an institution in the town having sold meat to generations of happy customers.
Anthony Holt, 61, has been working in the shop since he was 23-years-old and he started running the family business in 1995.
He said: "It has been very much a family business but at the same time we have sold ourselves as well as our product which is an important factor."
Deborah Holt-Atkinson, Anthony's sister who also helped with the family business, said: "My brother was to meat and butchery what Picasso was to painting."
The man behind the successful shop is Leonard Holt, 92, who said he first came to Witham in 1945.
Mr Holt said butchery is the only thing he has ever known and in recent years he has been "doing a couple of jobs just to get me out of bed," despite being in his 90s.
The shop is to keep the same name but it has been taken over by John Kent who is a director of Chappel-based Direct Meats.
Mr Kent, a former pupil at John Bramston School, took over the shop about a fortnight ago and he said he heard about the opportunity through the grapevine and decided it fitted in with what he wanted to do with is business.
For the full story see the Witham and Braintree Times.
