Welcome to Claridges
In 1922 George Claridge with his brother Rubin founded a Pork Butchers business at 5 Lower Gungate Tamworth – where the shop can still be found today. Sadly, the two brothers could not work together, so Rubin went his own way and George carried the business forward from strength to strength.
George with his wife Elsie established the business using the outbuildings for the slaughtering and manufacturing of their own traditional pork products made using their own recipes that are still being used and sold to this day.
George and Elsie had one son, Noel, who at a very young age was helping in the family business – grooming the horse and cleaning the cart that was used as a mobile shop supplying all their pork products to the surrounding area.
Noel married Winefred Pizzuto in 19?? (date) and they both carried on the family business after Noel had served in the Second World War. At Claridge’s Noel was behind the scenes carrying out the slaughtering and manufacturing of their home made pork products, which included:
- Pork Pies
- Sausages
- Polony
- Faggots
- Chitterlings
- Home Rendered Lard
- Pork Dripping
- Black Pudding
- Roasted Legs of Pork
- Home Cured Bacon
- Cooked Hams
These were all sold in the shop, which was managed by Winefred.
Noel and Winefred had two daughters, Andrea and Julia who were both encouraged to join the family business.
In 1968 Anthony Willcocks joined the firm who was engaged to Andrea. At this time the slaughtering operation was ceased at 5 Lower Gungate and was instead performed for Claridges by another local butcher.
The horse and cart had now been exchanged for motorised vans and at one time there were four vans on the road serving the surrounding villages and local area with all their home made products, there was also a wholesale round which supplied the local shops.
In 1969 Claridges took over another butcher's premises and shop in Lichfield Street, Tamworth. At this time the production of pork products was outgrowing the space at Lower Gungate so Claridges had a factory purpose built behind the new shop in Lichfield Street. Andrea managed the shop in Lower Gungate and Julia moved to manage the new shop in Lichfield Street.
Julia’s husband-to-be, David Bolton soon joined the family business.
The manufacturing of our entire home made products carried on for the next 21 years until the lease expired in 1990. It was then decided that the firm would consolidate back to one shop and be operated by the four family members, as by this time Noel and Winefred had taken a back seat.
So, sadly, the production had to be streamlined to fit into the limited space that was available at the Lower Gungate shop. The rear room had already been converted into a cutting room, so now the rooms on the first floor were made into a production room, staff room, and store/office.
Claridges are now able to produce a full range of home made pork products including sausages, faggots, polony, sausage rolls and roasted legs of pork. However, unfortunately were have been unable to continue the tradition of manufacturing our own home made pork pies – as room was in such short supply having just the one premises. Instead we set about sourcing these products so that we could offer our customers the best available substitutes.
Today, you will find many new product lines at Lower Gungate, including bread, rolls, cakes, jams, and pickles all from a local family bakery. We also sell a range of vegetables, English tomatoes and fresh salad produce.
Come Christmas time, we supply fresh, free range Turkeys and Geese from local farms.
We hope you have enjoyed reading our story and that the information contained within the other pages of this website are interesting to you. We would be delighted to see you at 5 Lower Gungate soon.
Andrea, Julia, Anthony, and David