Last New Milton town centre butcher T Bartlett & Son closes as Alan Bartlett hangs up his apron

Alan Bartlett promised himself that he’d never be working at 67 – so last week he closed the doors to his popular New Milton butchers and retired aged 66 and 364 days.

It was a bitter-sweet occasion for Alan. He had hoped a buyer would take on T Bartlett & Son, which has been on the town high street since the 1950s, before he called it day.

The shop had been on the market for 18 months and it seemed an interested party had been found. But this fell through, leaving Alan with little choice but to shut the town centre’s last remaining butchers, and bring to an end more than 100 years of family involvement behind the meat counter.

“It’s really sad and disappointing,” he said. “I had very much hoped the shop would continue.”

Alan can trace his family’s butchers back to before the First World War when his great-grandfather ran a shop in Wimborne, which eventually closed when all its staff went off to fight.

His grandfather set up shop in Ashley in 1940s, eventually opening the branch on Station Road when his father Tom got involved in the business.

Although both Alan and his brother worked in their father’s shop as youngsters, he was not interested in following the family tradition.

“No, I had no thoughts about it at all,” Alan recalled.

“Upon leaving Brockenhurst College, I went along to the Merchant Navy with the intention of joining that.”

Successful interviews completed, there was a six-month wait before Alan could be taken on – and it was an eventful six months.

“I was still living with my parents but my father, being ex-military, was not going to have me lying around in bed all day, and I was sent down to the shop every day at six in the morning.

“Those six months passed pretty rapidly, I bought myself a car and I met Frances, my future wife.

“It then became apparent to me that if you join the navy, you see a lot of the ocean but not necessarily a lot of the world. So I stayed with the shop.”

A few decades and a handful of children later, Alan and Frances’ eldest son tried his hand – but the interest didn’t take.

“He joined for a short year after he left college,” said Alan. “Around that time we had the BSE scare in the country, the results of which saw two-thirds of butchers’ shops closed across country.

“We were looking over our shoulders wondering if we were going to be next. So I was honest with him, I thought he needed to know the facts of life.

“He decided it wasn’t for him, and subsequently none of his brothers showed any interest in it either.”

Despite the soaring cost of living and rocketing bills finishing off many independent businesses, the closure of T Bartlett & Son is a solely down to Alan’s retirement.

“I’m disappointed no one’s got the vision to take the shop on in New Milton.

“Of course it’s come at a very bad time, we’ve had such a hike in the price of electricity and gas, a lot of people are running scared.

“I think the high streets are going to become more social centres. The younger generation buy most of their goods online, but I do think butchers have still got a place on high streets.”

In the days leading up to the closure, Alan was left in no doubt what the shop meant to his customers.

“It was emotional, lots of people came in with lots of nice things to be said about how we’ll be missed.

“We’ve had great clients, some real characters entertaining us in the shop over the years.”

For now, though, Alan will be using his newfound free time to get fit.

Or so he says.

“People ask me what I’m going to do, and you do have to tell them something. They say ‘within six months you’ll be bored’.

“So if I say I’m going to become a physical fitness freak, that’s something they can understand. That’s my official line.”