Mettrick’s Butchers

Back in the early 1900s, John Mettrick’s great granddad’s uncle left his job at a butchers in Manchester equipped with just a sausage recipe and a dream. 120 years later and Mettrick’s Butchers is still going strong (and its sausages are as popular as ever).

At the helm is John and his brother Steven who is responsible for the sourcing and prepping of the carcasses at what used to be their abbatoir on Victoria Street, Glossop.  Then it’s John’s job to sell it in the shop on Glossop High Street, making sure that the whole of the animal is used, all the time.

Locally sourced meat from three counties

Glossop’s location close to the borders of Derbyshire, Cheshire and Yorkshire means they can locally-source from farms across three counties. Depending on when you go, you can find everything from giant chicken tikka sharer kebabs, made with their own-recipe marinade and containing at least two chicken fillets per kebab, to Lorne sausage (John’s Scottish butcher friends gave him a recipe), to Chatsworth Estate steaks, prepared and dry-aged by Steve.

Mettrick’s supplies top restaurants including The Packhorse in nearby Hayfield. It’s also well-known for its pork pies; they won the coveted Melton Mowbray award a few years back. The big, plate-sized ones are a staple in many Glossop homes at Christmas, and the queues go down the High Street at turkey collection time. Sometimes they’ll get a brass band to entertain their customers while they wait.

Whatever the time of year, it’s popular, and John makes sure his product range is tuned-in to the changing seasons: barbecue cuts in summer, haggis in January, bacon rashers and sausages for a rainy weekend. He also takes requests, like for the Lorne sausage, so just ask if you’ve got something special in mind. He’ll probably enjoy the challenge.