When 13-year-old Patrick Millward applied for a Saturday morning job for pocket money at Bishop the Butchers in 2001, filling in for his brother, who said he had found a better gig as a kitchen porter, owner Alan told Patrick “We’ll hire you or we’ll fire you”.
16 years of part- and full-time work for the shop later, Patrick found the money somehow to buy the business (even though he was due to get married the following month) when Alan retired. By then Patrick had become the shop’s manager and had a degree in butchery and plenty of management experience.
Ex-owner Alan has remained a valued adviser to the business along with a “Council of Elders” who keep Patrick in good counsel (although Alan can still be heard to grumble that he should have fired his protege long ago).
Bishop the Butcher’s is another outstanding Uckfield High Street example of the value of maintaining a high quality product and service. Bishop’s received the ‘Butcher of Distinction’ award from the Q Guild of Butchers earlier this year, becoming one of only 67 butchers in the whole country with this significant industry distinction. Patrick himself devoted much of his time last year to the Team GB UK Lions Butchery Squad, a group of high-quality butchers who have raised thousands of pounds for good causes around the country. Bishop’s is also a regular and generous contributor to Uckfield’s Food Bank.
Patrick is introducing new products such as home-made meat pies to extend the range of raw meats and prepared dishes available at Bishop’s. No need to do it all yourself after buying meat the supermarket, you can go into Bishop’s and find top quality meat dishes ready prepared for the oven, grill, or frying pan, from stir-fries, sauces, and stews, to meat pies, barbecue meats, chicken
Kievs, pork pies, scotch eggs, turkey rolls, and more. And with no chance of ever encountering the chemically-injected US meat due to arrive sometime soon, a so-called Brexit benefit. Bishop’s is strictly a British meat butcher.
Patrick is an Uckfield resident, a committed family man with a wife and two children. He is also quite clearly not only a very successful but a very happy man, who loves his job and his family. The meat-eaters of Uckfield have never had it so good!