SOLE BUTCHERS

by Jennifer Ball

 This article was originally published in the December 2008 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society

This photograph is of the Sole Butchers shop taken at Christmas 2006 and situated in Broad Street in the delightful small market town of Alresford in Hampshire. John Sole is in partnership with his son Mark and the business has been in its present location for past fifteen years. The shop is not only a butchers but its kitchens produce home cooked ready made meals, pies, various varieties of freshly baked bread, cooked hams and even customers own dishes.

Historic Broad Street is said to be a contender for the county's most beautiful street, tree lined with a feast of Georgian colour-washed buildings with interesting shops and hostelries. The town has many attractions including the Watercress Line, Hampshire's only preserved steam railway, the River Arle and the Parish Church with French soldiers graves in the churchyard which date back to the Napoleonic Wars. Places to visit nearby include Jane Austen's House at Chawton, Alton and Winchester while  the surrounding countryside is close to the Itchen Way, Wayfarers Walk and Pilgrim's Way, Abbotstone Down and Itchen Valley.