Leading Wiltshire butcher Shawn Byrne helped catering students to sharpen their skills on a visit to Wiltshire College Trowbridge.

Mr Byrne – who works for award-winning Walter Rose and Sons of Devizes and Trowbridge – was invited to give students a hands-on demonstration of butchering a lamb and how to obtain the best cuts from the animal.

Year 2 student Olly Lander provided three lambs, reared on his family’s Bromham smallholding. All the retail cuts were returned to the family, for the freezer, after the demonstration.

Students not only learned how to butcher a lamb, but how to gain the best value from the animal.

Steve Lloyd, a lecturer in hospitality and catering, said: “For our students, the only meat they work with is pre-cut, so it’s important for them to learn these skills and to learn the whole process.”

The catering students run their own eatery, the White Horse Restaurant, which has just reopened for lunchtime business once a week during term times.

All dishes are prepared, served and cooked by the students as part of their training, with fresh, local and seasonal produce used where possible.

The restaurant is open on Wednesdays between 11.45am and 1pm.

To book a table, call 01225 756254 or email reservation requests to whitehorserestaurant@wiltshire.ac.uk