Thornton's Bakehouse& Butchers

John Thornton runs Thornton's Bakehouse & Butchers on Chapel Street in Easingwold, the fourth generation of his family to do so since his grandparents Colin and Mary Thornton opened a butcher's shop on the market place in 1960. Mary began baking pies alongside the meat counter, a combination the shop has kept ever since; John's father Geoff ran the business for decades before John took over, trained in butchery at Leeds City College with spells working abroad in New Zealand and Australia. The shop relocated temporarily to Husthwaite during a two-year rebuild and reopened on Chapel Street in 2019 in a purpose-built bakehouse, butchery, and shop. The handmade pork pies remain the signature product, alongside locally sourced meat and daily pastries.