Established in Thirsk by Thomas Lee in 1747, the year John Wesley first preached in the town, H Lee & Sons Family Butchers is one of the oldest family firms in Yorkshire.
Built upon solid traditional values of honesty and service, brothers Simon and Giles Lee follow their late father Harry’s commitment to providing high quality meat and meat products with friendly, welcoming customer service to all.
From their two shops in the town employing more than 10 local people, Lees sell the full range of beef, pork and lamb joints and cuts, including steaks, chops, bacon, burgers and cooked meats as well as fresh poultry.
Their market place shop bakes daily on site fresh pork pies, meat pies, pasties and sausage rolls. They make their own sausages in the shop with “sausage of the month” featuring tasty flavour combinations including pork with cranberries, pork and pickle and pork and black pudding to name a few. They also sell stuffing mixes and sauces to compliment your meat as well as extra large, free-range eggs from family firm Wensleydale Farm Eggs, Leyburn. You can find a full product list on their website.
All beef cattle and lambs are bought weekly direct from Thirsk auction mart and pigs come direct from a nearby farmer at Topcliffe. Slaughtered locally, the beef is hung and aged for a minimum of two weeks improving and concentrating the flavour of the meat before sale.
Giles says, “Buying local from Thirsk auction mart and local farmers is of utmost importance to us, for welfare reasons and to help everyone in the local economy. Customers nowadays are very interested to know where their food comes from, and to see that welfare standards are being kept up. We often put where our meat is sourced from on our blackboard outside the shop. It’s surprising how many folk notice this and come into the shop to buy which is brilliant because we believe that customer recommendations are the best advertising you can get!”
Sales are increasing via their Facebook page with regular offers and competitions launched to engage with customers both old ands new. Over 90% of their popular family meat packs are sold through Facebook messaging alone. They contain mince, burgers, sausages, diced pork, stewing steak and a slow roast joint (beef or pork) – all for just £25 – what fantastic value!
