I wasn't a butcher but I worked in dozens of their shops all round Birmingham and the midlands from 1961. Barretts of west Brom, Walter Smith, Dewhurst, Mathews etc so very likely I met some of you butchers here.
Working for shopfitters G.W.Stokes, Bow street we fitted out every new Dewhurst shop and refurbished all the old ones by changing the shop sign and removing J.H. from the J.H.Dewhurst sign. I was a painter and we had to paint the shop ceiling and window ceiling on the 1/2 day closing, the high ceilings on the old shops were anaglypta and painted with white gloss paint which rapidly went yellow again. Usually the manager was helpful and cleared the window a bit early so we could get in and undercoat the ceiling and return a week later to gloss it. Every shop manager that left us on our own always left a penny in the open till drawer!
A refurbish often meant removal of the Victorian marble slab in the window and counter top and replacing with a formica one, a new suspended tile ceiling, and a pegboard fitted on a suitable part of the wall for cans. The old shop signs were made of three pieces of white glass called
Vitreolite with metal letters fitted on which was replaced with formica. The heavy Vitreolite was a nightmare to remove, particularly standing up on a catwalk and trestles as you easily could cut yourself on the edges as did I.
Some of the butchers were great fun and liked a good laugh, especially in the black country. One in West Brom said something to me I never forgot, what on Earth made you want to be a painter he asked? to which I replied what made you want to be a butcher? He said "I told the the school careers officer I wanted to work with animals but I day mean bits of em"!