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The legacy of Butchery goes back through several generations of the Noonan family, who were originally “cattle dealers and butchers” in Tipperary, and created a successful family business with ‘Noonan’s Prime Meats”.  

Before Sky Park Farm opened to the public in 2021, there was no onsite butchery. As one of the principal suppliers to Waitrose for venison, the deer were moved to Dovecote Park for slaughter and butchery. With a drive to make sustainably sourced venison available to the public, planning permission was secured in April 2019 for an education centre, visitor centre with cafe, farm shop, butcher and restaurant, with the Farm Shop and Butcher ultimately opening its doors in October 2021. Now, the deer are culled on site and our butcher processes the venison for the Butcher and The Grazing Rooms in the Deer Larder.

“Employing experts in their trade is part of our ethos at Sky Park Farm. We are incredibly proud to have Hawie as part of our team – his knowledge and passion for meat is palpable to all our visitors. Supplying our own shop and cafe enables us to lower our carbon footprint and reinforces our vision to deliver venison with zero food miles from farm to fork.” 

Hawie started learning his trade when he was just 18. Highly experienced, Hawie trained in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, then spent eight years as an apprentice before becoming manager and then running his own shop. Moving to England in 2004, Hawie worked for Laverstoke Park, Cowdray Farm Shop and Secretts where he ultimately became Head Butcher. 

Hawie arrived at Sky Park Farm excited by the ethos, the energy of the people, and the reputation of the Deer farming team, led by Dominic Strutt, Estate Manager. 

His focus at the Sky Park Farm Butcher is to provide something for everyone – whether venison, lamb, beef, pork or chicken. 

“Ultimately, I am blessed with outstanding quality meat. My job is to then deliver this to customers, in cuts that I know will cook beautifully. I love to experiment with different flavour combinations of prepared dishes. Really the quality of the raw product is what will shine through – like with our rib of beef and cowboy steaks”.

The Butcher at Sky Park Farm is open every day, 9am to 5pm.