A FAMILY butchery business and a mainstay of Kendal's town centre for more than than six decades is to shut up shop at the end of the month.

Marsden Bros, located in New Shambles Yard, will sell its last lamb chop on April 29 and cease trading as a butchers, marking the 'end of an era'.

Opened by David and John Marsden in 1954, the shop has been run by David's sons, Chris and Robert, since the early '80s.

Despite a huge affection for the shop and their customers, the brothers have decided that it is time to 'call it quits' and move on to pastures new - leaving just one butchers left in Kendal town centre.

"We think we've done our time," Robert, 54, said. "Chris and myself, if you include coming in as Saturday boys, between the two of us we've got 80 years experience - it's a long time. Before we're too old to try something else, let's try something else."

The brothers both spent time working in the shop when they were teenagers, starting full-time after they had attended college to train in meat technology and food science.

"We'd always been brought up within the meat trade so we just naturally drifted into it," Chris, 51, explained. "The industry has changed a lot - the cutting is a lot more precise, more technical than it used to be.

"But we still, even now a couple of weeks before we are finishing, had beef on the bone delivered. We still get fresh in - we are processing it right through the system. We purchase at the J36 auction mart (Crooklands), so we are one of the very old fashioned ones which see it (meat) go through the entire system."

The duo recalled that when they started out, there were at least 10 other butchers in Kendal - however, the high street and shopping habits have dramatically changed over the years.

"One of the big changes we have noticed is that whereas once Mrs Smith would always come at the same time, same day, Mrs Smith still comes but once a fortnight or every three weeks and buys bigger (more) not fresher," Robert said.

However, the brothers believe that it is the quality, service and advice that they offer that has kept customers coming back time and time again.

"We would say at least 80 per cent are the same faces as it were," Robert said. "A lot of those people have become friends, they know us that well and we know them as well.

"Personally speaking I'm not looking forward to that last week because I think it will be an emotional time. It's almost a case of an end of that volume and we're going to start a new book altogether."