Wem in 2017 has two specialist butchers as well as occasional market stalls. As recently as the early 1940s, it had 7, including 2 specialist pork butchers. Since then shopping habits have changed and now, many people obtain their meat from supermarkets. Despite these changes, many people remember the former traders. Say "Pork pies" to anyone who has lived in Wem for any length of time and memories of the Turner Brothers' products will be recalled affectionately. Turners' shop was at No. 23 High Street, now used by Vintage Antiques. Frank Turner, the founder, began his butchery career when he left school in the early 1920s, working as an apprentice to Dawes and Heath, the pork butchers, opposite St. Peter & St. Paul’s church. When Frank Heath left the business and moved to Macclesfield, he invited Frank Turner to join him. However, instead, Frank began his own market stall and ran it for about 10 years, buying pigs and butchering them in his own slaughterhouse at Tilley. Pie and sausage making followed. In around 1934, Frank opened his shop and for 65 years, he and his sons traded there. Most of the early sales were made from a van, with weekly trips to Prees, Stanton, Hadnall and many other villages around Wem. When Bill Turner finished his National Service, soon after the Suez crisis, he and his brother took over the van rounds. The vans chosen were always painted white to reflect the sunlight, as refrigerated vans were unknown in the 1950s. The trade was difficult to predict. The van would stop at the homes of regular customers and other villagers would meet it there. Sometimes, they would drive to an isolated farm only to find that the farmer’s wife did not want her usual half pound of sausages. It also had its lighter moments. At Christmas, all the customers had a glass of sherry and a mince pie waiting. Both Bill and his wife, Wyllis, who often went with him, were invited to partake. Bill had the mince pie. Wyllis had the sherry, and commented that by the time that she got home, she didn’t know which way up to stand. Wartime sales were affected both by rationing and obtaining the meat. Bill remembers, 'We used to sell lots of sausage- everyone was allowed half a pound of sausage a week. It was off ration. There was a queue at the shop for it- they came in from everywhere. There were two American soldiers who came in regularly from the army camp. One of them, Jimmy Shields, used to help us make the sausage and sang all the time while he was working. One Wednesday the meat hadn’t come so we hadn’t any meat to make the sausage. Anyway, I told him we hadn’t any meat, so he said "leave it with me Mr Turner" and he went back to the camp in the jeep and then back again with 7lb tins. "Open them all up" he said "and put them in that big bath and fill it with water. By next morning it will all be meat." I do wonder what it was but no one worried. Sausage then was basically a lot of rusk. It was Meat, Rusk, Rusk, Rusk, Meat'.

After the war, the sourcing of pigs changed. No longer did Turners slaughter at home, but instead bought the carcases from nearby slaughterhouses. This was partly because they had no equipment. A police amnesty on guns had persuaded Frank to hand in his stun gun. This did cause some problems. Shortly afterwards, a local farmer asked him to slaughter a pig for him, so Frank went to the police to ask for it back, only to be told that it had been destroyed. Frank w as most upset! After that, most pigs were bought as carcases from Bradshaws at Whitchurch. Normally Turners could get through 7 pigs a week. Wyllis Turner would go over to collect them. The staff there would often hide behind the slaughterhouse curtains when they saw Turners' van pull in, as they knew that Wyllis was unwilling to go into the slaughterhouse but she could normally cajole them out. On one occasion after waiting for several minutes while all the staff stayed inside, she started to drive out of the yard, pursued by several worried slaughtermen. >Apart from van sales, the Turners were selling pies wholesale– Vermeulens at Ellesmere being one of their major customers. As this business grew, they realised that they were making far more from it than from retail van sales, and the van rounds were scrapped. Frank by this time had semi–retired – Bill commenting that he never came to terms with decimalisation and stopped serving in the shop after 1971 when that currency came in! Customers came from near and far. One came down from Liverpool regularly and took a large number of pies back while another worked at Sentinel in Shrewsbury and always took a number to work for resale. Pies of all sizes were made, all hand-raised – at the rate of 1000 a week. Bill reckoned he could raise 40 pie crusts in 10 minutes using the hand blocks shown in the photograph. Trade came from all over Wem and surrounds– with Brewery workers and Isherwood’s staff all wanting their pies regularly. On Thursday, market day, people from the surrounding villages came in and bought their weekly pies, both for themselves and as a 'shipping order' for neighbours. At Christmas, all 6 members of staff were working flat–out to make small pies, large pies, long pies (some with egg) and sausages to satisfy the massive demand.

Sadly, the shop closed in 1999 when the brothers retired. Now there are few shops left in Shropshire specialising in hand-raised pies as the commercial producers and supermarkets have taken most of that market. Anyone wanting a 'real' pie will have to look on market stalls or visit the few local butchers who still make their own – though in far smaller quantities.