"Proper sausages, proper bacon": Meet the 'old-school' butchers opening soon at Northampton’s Market Square

Steve Reid, owner of Northampton Cheese and The Northampton Charcuterie Company, is set to reopen the vacant butcher’s kiosk at Market Square on Thursday September 25. He already runs a cheese kiosk on the square and is now taking on his second stall.

Mr Reid said: “It can be a thriving business. We’ve seen that. We’ve seen how busy they were. And he’s missed, absolutely missed. We’ve just had to step up to the plate and say, okay, let’s try and get this all done.

“Because a lot of this stuff is what we do anyway down at the unit at Foundry Street, we thought, right, let’s go for it. We’ve got Gary who used to work in there – he’s a very proper old school butcher.

“We’re going to be making our own sausages on site there – sausages, burgers, meatballs, that sort of thing. The feedback so far has been very good.”

He added: “We’re going to be doing a lot more gluten-free products as well – more gluten-free sausages, more gluten-free burgers, that sort of thing.

“Price-wise, it’s not going to be cheap, cheap stuff, because that’s not what we do. Good quality, fair price. Proper sausages, proper bacon. We make a lot of bacon and we’ve now just started making them nitrate-free.”

The butcher’s unit, purpose-fitted by West Northamptonshire Council at a cost of thousands of pounds, has been empty since M&G Butchers left in spring.

The return of the butcher’s kiosk is likely to be a huge boost for the Market Square, which has been without two of its main stalls – the butcher’s and the florist’s – for months, just after its major refurbishment.

The stall will initially open Thursday to Saturday for the first couple of weeks while it establishes itself. Mr Reid said: “We’ve got to get it back established. We will open it more. We will be taking orders for Christmas – turkeys, crowns, that sort of thing.”

Mr Reid also praised the support from the new Reform council compared to the previous Tory council. He said: “The market, since it’s been opening, it’s been up and down. James Petter [deputy leader of WNC] has been absolutely phenomenal in wanting to make the market and the town work. If it was the last council, I would not be doing this. I wouldn’t even be there because, from what I saw, the last lot did not want it to work. It’s going to take time to build people’s confidence to coming back into town.”

The council has also confirmed that a new florist is set to open on the square later this month, likely taking over the bespoke-fitted kiosk previously occupied by Tony Jones Florists.

Northampton’s Market Square partially reopened on September 20, 2024, following an 18-month, £12.4 million refurbishment. The work included new paving, water features, fixed stalls with electricity and water, and a new events space, designed to attract more shoppers and businesses to the town centre.

The market stalls were made in Italy, and two council officers even flew out to inspect them in person before they were shipped to the UK for installation.