Turkey contest winner who supports local

THE winner of this year’s turkey competition said she was “very excited”, having never won anything before.

Valerie Bishop, 87, of Victoria Road in Wargrave, correctly answered that Barry Wagner, the owner of Gabriel Machin in Henley, had taken over the neighbouring Three Tuns pub in Market Place.

She won a 5kg turkey together with traditional trimmings, including
18 chipolatas, 18 rashers of streaky bacon, a 200g jar of goose fat and a 250g jar of cranberry sauce, worth a total of £140.

Mrs Bishop’s name was selected at random from 117 entries in the competition.

The former tailor, who moved to Elizabeth Court from Essex in 2014, will be spending Christmas with her family in Checkendon including her daughters Sue Prior, 62, from Wargrave and Heidi Edgar, 60.

Mrs Bishop said she was pleased to win. “It was very exciting to receive the phone call,” she said. “It really was. I’ve never won a competition before so I’m very happy.

“Like I said in the letter, I always go to a butchers’ for my meat and Gabriel Machin is a ‘proper’ butchers.

“I could never buy my meat from the supermarket.

“[Gabriel Machin] go right from the 19th century, so they are very well liked.

“I’m now 87 and I can just get a bus over there. They are lovely chaps and I always get what I need.”

Since 2015, the butchers’ has been owned by Mr Wagner, who took over from Ian Blandford, who had run the business for 14 years.