08/09/2026
Sadly, we have taken the difficult decision not to renew the lease on our Brackley shop, which will close its doors for the final time on Saturday 19th September 2026.
We have always believed that a butcher is the heartbeat of a high street. It is why, twenty years ago, my parents stepped in to save the butcher's shop in Brackley, with a simple belief in local food for local people. We are enormously proud of what has been achieved, not least in 2019, when our commitment to whole-carcass butchery and our support of local farmers saw Brackley named National Champion in the Countryside Alliance Awards.
Closing the shop does not, however, mean leaving Brackley. You will still be able to order your Smith & Clay favourites directly from our butchers by phone, email or WhatsApp, with free delivery to the Brackley area. We hope to welcome familiar Brackley faces to our Buckingham shop too, so please pop into Brackley before we close and pick up a voucher for 15% off your first shop with us in Buckingham. We are also in discussions with other local food businesses about ways we might continue to have a presence in Brackley, and we hope to have more news soon. Likewise we will share details of our Christmas delivery and collection arrangements well before the festive season.
So why are we closing?
Twenty years on, the economics of running a traditional high-street butcher have changed enormously. We are a whole-carcass butcher. We buy directly from farmers we know, mature our meat, break down carcasses and make many of our products ourselves. Behind each counter is a small food-production centre, requiring highly skilled people, specialist equipment and refrigeration running around the clock. Costs have risen across the board. Brackley and Buckingham are only seven miles apart, and running two complete butchery and production centres that close together no longer makes economic sense. We don't want to respond to those pressures by compromising with our products, our relationships with farmers and producers, our skilled workforce or the way we believe proper butchery should be done.
Our trade is also facing a national shortage of skilled butchers, and training the next generation is an important part of the answer, something we wish more butchers felt able to do. Over the last twenty years we have trained many butchers within our business. In 2021 we formalised that commitment through our apprenticeship programme based at Buckingham, in partnership with MEAT Ipswich, and six apprentices have qualified with us since. Bringing our teams together in Buckingham means we can concentrate our people, skills and investment in one place and build for the future. The timing has helped us do this properly. A break in our lease has fallen at the same time as Josh deciding to head off travelling, which meant we could plan this change carefully rather than rush it, and nobody is losing their job as a result of the closure.
Before we close the doors, we want to say a heartfelt thank you to the generations of customers who have shopped with us; to the butchers and staff, past and present, who have been part of the Brackley shop; and to our farmers, producers, suppliers and the wider Brackley community who have supported us along the way.
Closing Brackley marks the end of an important chapter, but not the end of what it stood for. We remain passionate about independent high streets, local food, skilled butchery, supporting our farmers and training the next generation. These values will remain at the heart of Smith & Clay in Buckingham.
Margaret Behan Owner
