Ken, who is Shrewsbury born and bred, left school to work for a butcher in Bayston Hill in 1941 on a wage of 14 shillings a week – 70 pence.
His jobs included pedalling a traditional butcher’s bike to customers in Shrewsbury town centre every Wednesday, and helping out on van delivery runs on Friday evenings.
He went on to work as a butcher with the Co-op, ending up as manager of Coton Hill branch, followed by Minshall’s in Monkmoor, his own business in Monkmoor Road, and finally four years at Dewhurst in the Riverside Shopping Centre until retirement in 1992.
But a good butcher never hangs up his knives and Ken still works on a casual basis for Bert Butler at Condover and Doug Lewis on Springfield Estate, Shrewsbury.
Ken, who lives with wife Ruth at Racecourse Green, Monkmoor, said he was sorry to see so many of Shrewsbury’s traditional butcher’s shops vanishing.
“In the 1940s, there were at least 20 in the town centre, including five on Wyle Cop alone,” he said.
“It’s convenience that people go for today. They buy their groceries at the supermarket and grab a ready meal while they are at it.
“People are ignorant about meat and have no idea how to cook it.”
Ken said he liked to see fat running through the grain of meat to make it succulent and he did not approve of meat being ‘mucked about’ with.
“We’ve never had a Chinese meal in our lives and aren’t starting now,” he said.
“Every time we went abroad, I was all right if I could find a nice pork chop.
“I was once offered cous-cous in Morocco but I said no thank you, that’s not for me.”
Ken, a keen bowler and a Shrewsbury Town fan since 1936, added: “Sixty seven years of chopping up meat has left its toll. My muscles have gone and I’m waiting for an operation for a new joint on my arm.”
Could 81-year-old Ken Harris be the oldest butcher in Shropshire?
He started wielding his cleaver at the tender age of 14 and is still going strong.
And he reckons he’s living proof that a diet of good quality meat, simply cooked, is the way to be happy and healthy.