The closure brings to an end a business that has been in the town, without interruption, since it was founded in 1288.
A sign above the former butcher’s shop still says ‘Elm Farm Butchers’ but the counter has gone. All that remains is a single cabinet of prepacked meat (although signs in the windows say that orders can be placed in advance and staff say two extra display cabinets are due).
Until three years ago Winchelsea’s butcher’s shop was run by nationally-renowned Jamie Wickens. He sold his business to Winchelsea Farm Foods, the subsidiary of an environmental charity Wetland Trust, set up by Icklesham resident and retired hedge fund manager Stephen Rumsey and his wife Anne. In 2011, a year after the sale of his business, Jamie parted company with the Rumseys in an acrimonious dispute that featured in the Sunday Times and is now trading from the Ship Inn in Winchelsea Beach.
Ever since Jamie’s departure Winchelsea Farm Foods appears to have struggled. Indeed, all the retail businesses in the extensive portfolio assembled by the Rumseys have struggled and, by April of last year, the company had accumulated a loss of almost £4 million, according to their published accounts.
In the wake of these losses Winchelsea Farm Foods has closed almost all its businesses, including the iconic Ashbee’s shop in Rye, as well as the delicatessen next door to the Winchelsea butcher, a garden shop in Winchelsea and a ‘farm’ shop in Icklesham.
In Winchelsea, a delicatessen and wine shop were closed and the tea shop has been down-sized and its menu slashed. The much-loved Little Shop was closed this year and its business moved into the premises of the former delicatessen.
The Winchelsea Post Office was also recently closed and then reopened but only after a public outcry and only for two hours, twice a week. Several employees have been made redundant.