Walkers Butcher Shop - The Artisan Butcher - Ripley

Welcome to Walkers Butcher Shop. You’ll find us on Oxford Street in Ripley, Derbyshire, where we’ve been a popular feature of the local community since the early 1980s

From our award-winning sausages, made on-site from locally sourced outdoor reared pork, to mouth-watering cuts of beef and lamb, hung on the premises for a minimum of 21 days, you are guaranteed to enjoy our exceptional produce.

Because of the hanging process, our meat has a better flavour and far less shrinkage than you get from the supermarkets, giving you more meat for your money and on your plate.

We sell meat that is locally sourced from free range farms and nearby farmers’ markets to support farming in the region. These suppliers are committed to the emotional and physical wellbeing of their livestock.

Our popular Walkers Butcher Shop lunch menu features our handmade sausages and burgers, as well as  chicken,  pork and succulent steak cobs.

We look forward to seeing you.

A family business

Walkers Butcher Shop is now run by me, Paul Walker. The shop was a prominent part of my childhood and I began working here with my father on Saturdays from the age of 13. When I left school in 1987, I decided to follow in my father’s footsteps and train as a butcher. For 14 years, my father and I worked side by side, until he retired in 2001.

Walkers Butcher Shop, Est. 1961

My father, Mr Peter Walker, originally opened Walkers Butcher Shop in 1961 on Shaftesbury Street in Derby, where it became a familiar part of daily life in the local community for the next few years. 

In the early 1970s, he moved to Nottingham Road, Ripley, then In 1981, Walkers Butcher Shop moved to its present day location, here in Oxford Street, Ripley, where the premises had been used as a butcher shop since the early 1960s. When my father took over, the shop was known for the sale of fancy goods but he began its journey towards selling the high quality cooked and raw meats, as well as cooked lunchtime foods, for which we’re renowned today.

A skilled team

Walkers Butcher Shop has a small but skilled team of two full-time butchers and four part-time staff. I buy all of the produce in carcass form to ensure you go home with a better grade meat. We produce 98% of the products on the premises, including award-winning sausages, chops, bacon, ham, pork pies, meat pies and sausage rolls. 

As a team, we pride ourselves on exceptional hygiene and have been awarded a Grade 5 rating – the highest possible – for our health and safety standards. We are always learning new techniques and refining our skill as butchers, which, combined with our high quality produce, means that you have peace of mind when you buy from Walkers Butcher Shop.

A local business using local produce

All the meat we sell is locally sourced from  farms and nearby markets to support farming in the region and ensure the wellbeing of the animals, including minimising the time they spend in transit. We have a network of trusted suppliers who deliver a consistently high standard of produce.

We hang our beef on the premises for a minimum of 21 days and our lamb for 10 days, while our dry cured bacon is salted, rinsed, hung and dried here too. The result of this process is better quality meat with a better flavour and far less shrinkage that you get from supermarket-bought meat. Because the shrinkage happens during the hanging process, not in your frying pan or oven, you get more meat for your money and more meat on your plate.