An award-winning Yorkshire farm shop is successfully running the butchery concession at Crimple Food Hall in Leeds Road, Pannal,
James Robertshaw, of Robertshaw’s Farm Shop in Thornton, above Bradford, was approached by the Watson family, owners of Crimple Food Hall, newly opened in November last year, to run the in-house butchery department.
Both businesses say they share the same joint mission – to champion local producers and local food. In fact, the Robertshaw family of farmers and butchers has been bringing local food to local tables across their West Yorkshire heartlands for four generations since establishing the former Keelham Farm Shop on their own working farm in Brontë Country in 1929.
The name change to Robertshaw’s took effect in 2019, with the Keelham name retained by a second and now independently owned and run farm shop in Skipton.
Robertshaw’s Farm Shop has won multiple regional and national awards, most recently North Region Best Rural Retail Business in the 2021 Rural Business Awards, along with a Great British Food Awards win and finalist in the Butchers Shop of the Year Awards.
Over the years, third generation butcher James Robertshaw has cemented long-standing relationships with at least 250 Yorkshire farmers. He sources premium quality beef, multiple champions and prize winners among them, on a weekly basis from auction marts across the region. It’s fully matured for a minimum of 21 days to maximise both taste and texture.
Situated on a working sheep farm, Robertshaw’s Farm Shop also produces its own prime lambs for sale in the shop, as well as sourcing prime pork from Yorkshire farms. These meats are available in all the popular cuts over the butchery counter at Crimple Food Hall, along with award-winning home-made sausages and burgers.
Mr Robertshaw explained:
Supporting our regional farmers and in turn the regional economy is imperative, as it reduces food miles, which is better for the whole community, while the welfare of the animals is also at its highest.
All these factors really make a difference to creating better tasting meats. We know exactly where our food comes from and can guarantee both provenance and full traceability throughout the whole supply process. It’s proved a recipe for success over many years at Robertshaw’s and is now doing so at Crimple Food Hall, with customers both welcoming and appreciating our efforts.
The butchery section at Crimple Food Hall – it features over 50 specialist producers, many of them local – is being managed by Jack Holden, with assistant manager Mr Robertshaw’s 19-year-old son, Harley, who follows in his father’s footsteps by becoming the fourth generation of the family to work in the business, which he joined straight from school.
