Baxters The Butchers

A Memory of Fetcham.

In 1954 my mother, Winifred Diwell, was the cashier at Baxters the Butchers in this parade. Meat would be served at the counter by an aproned butcher who would weigh and wrap the meat in paper and then spear a small paper ticket bearing the price onto the package with a silver wire thing that looked like a miniature sword. The shopper then took the parcel across the dark wood cubicle where my mother sat. She would remove the tag with the price and take the money. On Saturdays - then aged 10 or 11 - I would cycle down to the shop on my Hercules bike with a basket on the front and take out meat deliveries. At the end of the day, I would be paid 2/6! I also remember rushing into the shop one day, so very excited, to tell my mother that I had passed the 11+...