Cheers! The Butchers Dog celebrates its 10th birthday

Happy birthday to The Butchers Dog, which first opened its doors 10 years ago this month.

Proud to be a traditional type of pub, it is a family owned, independent business, run by a local family team that’s truly passionate about great real ale and traditional pubs.

At a time, when many pubs are finding life difficult, the Butchers Dog has attracted a loyal band of customers who appreciate its choice of quality real ales and old-fashioned values.

Landlady Natalie Waudby said: “The support of the people of Driffield has been fantastic. Ten years ago, people said I was mad when I opened the Butchers Dog in a small shop.

“It is a passion. It is not just a pub, it is my life and I appreciate that the people of Driffield have taken it to their hearts.”

For Natalie, running her own pub was something she had wanted to do as a child.

And even though, she studied architectural technology at university, her dreams of being behind a bar never went away.

She said: “I’ve got a piece of paper from when I was at primary school that said, even at the age of nine, I wanted to be a landlady.

“My mum was really into dolls’ houses and as a teenager, we made a pub dolls’ house. It got shoved into the loft, but when we got it out a few years ago, it was amazing how it looked just like the old pub, the colours and everything.

“I enjoy the job even more than I ever thought I would. It is my favourite place to be.

“It is a community hub as well as a pub. The back room is free for community use.”

The Butchers Dog’s calendar is a very mixed bag. It hosts regular comedy nights, food history nights, supper clubs, painting classes, coffee mornings and a monthly book club.

There is regular live music and buskers’ sessions every Thursday while the market is in operation, and a host of Christmas events are being planned for December, from wine tasting to an evening of clairvoyance. It also hosts various events for local veterans’ groups.

Just don’t expect to be able to watch sport on TV, and if you are on the phone, keep the volume down or you risk a telling off from Natalie, or her two members of staff – Charlotte, her ‘right-hand girl’ and Louie, ‘an absolute superstar’.

“There are not a lot of traditional pubs still going,” Natalie said. “We wanted to get back to people getting out of the house and talking to each other.

“When we started, we only did traditional flat cider and cask ales. We had no wines and no spirits, and we eventually introduced soft drinks.

“I wanted to show that pubs don’t have to rely on food, televisions and jukeboxes. It was all about going back to basics.

“We are one of the few independent pubs in the town and I hope people will keep supporting us.”

It’s not just local customers who enjoy paying a visit to the pub. Real ale enthusiasts from all around the region – and even further afield – pop in to see the range of drinks available and enjoy the atmosphere.

And the locals have a real passion for their favourite spot, and regularly bring back beermats and other items to help to decorate the walls and ceilings of The Butchers Dog.

The pub, in Market Place, started life on Middle Street South, and the Butchers Dog name is a culmination of the history of the site, four decades of UK micro brewing heritage, and Natalie’s own pet dog!

The original site was built around 500 years ago as a butchers shop and remained so throughout its history until 2008. The pub opened in 2014.

The name was partly a homage to the very first micro pub in the UK, The Butchers Arms, and a story of a dog pinching a string of sausages from the butchers and running away down Driffield high street.

How true that story is, Natalie doesn’t know, but she liked it and came up with a logo depicting her beautiful Dalmatian Peppa as the sausage thief.

In 2021 the pub moved from its first site to the Middle Pub site on Market Place. The team decided to keep the canine name, even though many of the Driffield locals will always know it as The Old Falcon.
But the name still has a nod back to the original pub name, The Dog & Duck.

Covid lockdowns hit the pub industry hard and the original premises were so small, they could only accommodate 25 people at the best of times. When social distancing meant that number was down to single figures, Natalie knew it was time for a change.

“I always wanted a permanent home for The Butchers Dog and now we are in the heart of Driffield.”