Updated  09 May 2008

Local writer Leslie Wilkie has just published his latest novel entitled ‘The Felicity Factor’.  This story details the world-wide hunt for a missing woman from East Yorkshire and introduces the character Alan Craven, a Driffield based private investigator.   More on this

GETTING TO KNOW YOU . . .

JAMES WHITE, our local butcher

When you kick off your shoes on a Friday night at the end of a tiring 37-hour week, spare a thought for James White, the butcher, who works a six-day, 72-hour week, every week of the year, barring holidays.

James’s butcher’s shop at 65 Main Street, Cranswick, is a village institution - a truly local business which provides a market for local farmers (cattle from Skerne, pigs from Brandesburton, sheep from various farms around Driffield) and supplies customers as far afield as London and Portsmouth.

James began helping in his father’s butcher’s shop in Belper, Derbyshire, at the tender age of five. When he was sixteen, his parents bought the shop and adjacent cottage overlooking the Village Green at Cranswick, because they wanted to make the business totally autonomous by doing their own slaughtering, something for which they did not have the facilities at their old premises. When Mr White decided to retire in 2001, he handed over the running of the Cranswick shop to James.

So, although James is only 36 years old, he can honestly say that he has been in the butchery business for over 30 years. In total, the staff at the Main Street shop can boast an impressive 110 years of experience! Bob, the shop manager, has been in butchery for 40 years, as has Mike, the slaughterman. Johnny, the Saturday assistant, makes up the full complement of staff.

James says that he doesn’t think he could get a better outlook from his shop window, or a nicer set of customers, anywhere else in Britain. He loves the East Yorkshire countryside, but for holidays likes to travel much further afield - Borneo and Venezuela have been two of his recent holiday destinations.

What does he enjoy in his leisure time? What leisure time?, he asks. He does like to cook, and has taken chef training courses. Fortunately for James, though, he is one of those rare and lucky people who can honestly say he loves his work so much that he considers it a leisure pursuit in itself.

Parish Council Minutes

March 2008

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