03:30Anything else you'd like to mention about Bishop's Castle?
03:32Well, I think one of the lovely things about Bishop's Castle is that it's set in such a beautiful
03:43area.
03:44You know, I think that they call Shropshire England's best kept secret.
03:49And I hope in many ways that it will remain a secret because it's just nice to be able
03:54to enjoy the peace and the beauty of the area around.
03:58Yeah.
03:59Yeah.
04:00It's just a lovely place to be.
04:03Perfect.
04:04Thank you very much for your time.
04:05I'm Andrew Pugh, a butcher.
04:07I've been in business for 45 years now.
04:11I'm in partnership with my son.
04:13Yeah.
04:14I'm in partnership.
04:15Anything else you need to know?
04:18Yes.
04:19Yeah.
04:20You said that you're not actually, you're not based in Bishop's Castle.
04:23So what prompted you to open a business here?
04:25I, I had a business in Churchstoke first in the Tuppins supermarket.
04:32Then this came on the market in 98.
04:35So we bought this.
04:37But we had a, I was involved with Tuppins quite a lot.
04:42And, um, what prompted you to buy this?
04:48It was a good shop and came on the market.
04:50Yeah.
04:51Lovely.
04:52Yeah.
04:53What do you like about being based in Bishop's Castle?
04:54It's friendly.
04:55You know, the customers are great.
04:57Yeah.
04:58You know, those that come here.
05:01Yeah.
05:02Yeah.
05:03Yeah.
05:04Pretty friendly, very nice.
05:05Um, it's not over busy.
05:09It's quite busy, but not desperately.
05:11Yeah.
05:12Yeah.
05:13Yeah.
05:14Perfect.
05:15Yeah.
05:16Um, why should more people come out to Bishop's Castle?
05:17What would you recommend they do here?
05:18Are there any businesses you'd recommend they visit?
05:19Any businesses they recommend they visit?
05:20Um, well, no, it's just a nice area for walking and that sort of thing, isn't it?
05:21And, uh, it's a peaceful, peaceful sort of area.
05:22There are bits of history about here, but a lot of the civil work based in this area.
05:27Yeah.
05:28Um, and the board has always been disputed.
05:29So, yeah.
05:30Yeah.
05:31Yeah.
05:32Yeah.
05:33Yeah.
05:34Yeah.
05:35Perfect.
05:36Yeah.
05:37Yeah.
05:38Would you recommend any of the pubs or anywhere to eat here?
05:39I'd recommend the Six Pills and Caslow Town.
05:40Yeah.
05:41And maybe even three towns.
05:42Could be good if it ever gets sorted out.
05:43You know.
05:44Brilliant.
05:45What do you offer here at the butcher shop?
05:46Local beef, local pork.
05:47Well, free range pork actually.
05:48And local lamb, mutton.
05:49Yeah.
05:50Yeah.
05:51Yeah.
05:52Yeah.
05:53Yeah.
05:54Yeah.
05:55Yeah.
05:56Yeah.
05:57Yeah.
05:58Yeah.
05:59Yeah.
06:00Yeah.
06:01Yeah.
06:02Yeah.
06:03Yeah.
06:04Yeah.
06:05Yeah.
06:06Yeah.
06:07Yeah.
06:08Yeah.
06:09Yeah.
06:10Yeah.
06:11Yeah.
06:12Yeah.
06:13Yeah.
06:14Yeah.
06:15Yeah.
06:16We do a wide range of cheeses and we do veg.
06:18Yeah.
06:19And chutneys and those sort of things.
06:21Yeah.
06:22And we make our own sausage which I know our haggis are award winning, but I'm sure our
06:28sausage could do the same if we entered anything.
06:31Yeah.
06:32Yeah.
06:33Yeah.
06:34Yeah.
06:36Anything else you want to mention about Bishop's Castle or by himself?
06:38Bishop's Castle?
06:39I went to school there and I was born three miles out, but I live 30 miles out now, so I'm not much of a talk.
06:52Yeah, I'm Nigel Gasper.
06:54How long have you lived in Bishop's Castle?
06:56Since 1999.
06:591999, lovely. Where did you live before?
07:01Well, I was living with my wife in Lundussel, just behind Montgomery.
07:07We met elsewhere in Trobshire, and then we got married and lived here, lived happily ever after.
07:15Yeah, brilliant. What prompted you to move to Bishop's Castle? What attracted you to this?
07:19Well, it was bell ringing. I came along to join the bell ringers at the church, because I'd done some bell ringing at some chants in Troisbury.
07:31And it's all very pub-y. It's bell ringing. It's about going to the pub, really.
07:37And that's what happened here.
07:39They used to meet every Monday for practice nights and meet at the Bells, and then off to the Bells pub afterwards.
07:47And that became our social life when we lived in Lundussel, and then somebody said, well, why don't you have to move here?
07:54Yeah.
07:55Well, we did in the end. That half of the house came up for sale, and we bought that.
08:01And then four years later, this half came up, because there was a very old lady living in it.
08:09She passed away, and she told me who her landlord was, and she was still paying £2.15 a week.
08:19OK.
08:22Up to about 2004, so then we managed to buy this directly from the landlord and add it to what we'd already got, and create a long kitchen at the back.
08:35The kitchen at the back is a sort of lean-to.
08:55People who have been long-lived here, like our friends right next door there.
08:59They're really lovely. There's a real friendship with them.
09:03And we're dependent on things like that when you live in an uplying place like this, you know.
09:09Yeah.
09:10A lot of new people have moved in since we've been here. It's, you know, gradually been discovered.
09:18Yes, yeah.
09:19It's been published in The Guardian and the various other things as a new Cotswold.
09:26Yes, yeah. Perfect.
09:28Why should more people come out to visit Bishop's Castle? What businesses would you recommend they visit here?
09:33Well, it's a bit limited. There is a cafe. There's a super antique shop at the top there.
09:40Jill Thomas' Antique Shop is great. I bought a lot of stuff from there myself because I'm into that, as you can probably tell.
09:49I used to work for Shrewsbury Museums.
09:51Lovely.
09:52I used to run Clive House Museums in Shrewsbury for years. And so, yes, there's a Bulgarian friendship. You know, I became a sort of part of the town. I got on well with everyone here.
10:13It seems it's a good place to be. Not difficult. Lots of pubs, lots of places to meet up. I think about six pubs still.
10:20Yeah.
10:21It's famous for that. At one time, just about every house was a pub because the drovers used to move through.
10:28So people and householders used to brew beer and sell it to the passing folk, including this one.
10:35So this was known as the Bell for quite a time in the 1790s. Then, as a business, that transferred over the road to what's now the Six Bells over the road.
10:48Wonderful.
10:49We've got the oldest brewery in Britain at the top of the town at the Three Tannes. The beer is very good. And it's exported, you know, well beyond Shropshire.
11:02Yeah.
11:03And what else is there? Well, as you see, it's sort of just a house you tailor-made for all. These things, many of which I inherited from my family, you know, these kinds of things.
11:17So, yes, it all seemed to fit everything extremely well.
