'End of an era' as Mr Bacon the butcher retires at 92
BBCA butcher who has been working for his family business since before World War Two has retired, aged 92.
John Bacon remembers standing on a crate decorating the pork pies as a small child after his dad Albert opened a shop on Carolgate in Retford, Nottinghamshire, in 1938.
Now, 88 years later, he has decided to retire, saying he has "given it my all".
The shop, A.W. Bacon & Sons, is staying open and has been taken over by local butcher Adam Spencer, who plans to keep the name and the popular sausage rolls, in place.
John worked for his dad from its opening and left school at 14 to help with the shop and his dad's other two businesses – running a bookies and looking after race horses.
He said he remembered hearing German bombers flying over the house in the night and still going to work the next day, with queues out the door during rationing.
Since then the business has moved to new premises on the same street, weathered many challenges, including the rise of supermarkets, and grown to employ about 35 people.
John said his dad, who retired two weeks before his death aged 95, was an inspiration for him to keep working.
"It's just something bred into you," he said. "Dad said we had to work, and that was it.
"He used to say: 'Don't close those doors if there's a pound left in Carolgate... I want it'."
John admitted, with a name like Bacon, the family "had to be pork butchers".
All his siblings have at points been employed at the family firm, but John was the last of them still working at the shop.
His two nephews are also retiring, although there will still be three younger Bacons employed there.
After his son Jonathan, who was helping to run the shop, died last year, he and his wife Denise, who was also still working, decided it was time to step down.
Up until Tuesday, he was getting in at 06:30 in the morning and working a few hours a day, seven days a week.
"We are ready to retire," he said. "I've given my all and I can't give any more. I'm very very lucky, I'm still fit.
"[To walk out the doors for the last time] is very very sad indeed, when you've worked somewhere all your life... but the new boy is a whizz kid, I think he'll be OK."
Regular customers were sad to hear the news.
Tracy Shuck, 62, said: "It won't be the same without the real Mr Bacon. He's a lovely man, I hope he enjoys his retirement.
"I hope [the new owner] doesn't change the recipe for the sausage rolls, which I know a lot of people are wondering."
Andrew Bartrop, 62, who visits every day for the brownies, added: "It's a shame, it's been a staple this place. But his spirit's still going to be here.
"It's a long time isn't it, to be in the same job, that's dedication for you.
"He should be knighted. That's my view on it."
The business is now being taken over by Adam Spencer, who already runs the nearby Westlands Butchers.
The 31-year-old said it was "exciting" and "humbling" to have bought a business with such a special place in its many loyal customers' hearts.
"It's a bit of an end of an era," he said. "He worked his socks off.
"That's something to aspire to – I don't know if I can match it and go that far, but it's wholly impressive.
"Anyone who's been here can respect everything he's done and the legacy he's leaving behind for me to take forwards."
He also confirmed he would not be changing the sausage roll recipe.
John and his wife, who had to get married on a Wednesday to fit around the shop's half-day opening, said he had told his grandsons: "I don't want you telling me tales about the business – I don't want to know, it's over.
"I had a few tears leaving, it's been a long long time.
"But I'm glad we've done it."
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