Last weekend I bought some minced pork and local eggs from Charles Baynham, our finest butchers in Chandler’s ford.
I used the minced pork to make some Chinese dumplings for the Chinese New Year (yes it’s the Year of the Pig, as I heard you asked!)
Charles Baynham has run this friendly, traditional butcher for 40 years in Chandler’s Ford.
Inside the shop you see an England flag as well as a South African flag.
Outside the shop you see some … pheasants!
Charles Baynham sells quality meats and has attracted both local shoppers and those from far away. Charles Baynham offers local meat, poultry and seasonal game. It also specialises in South African items, such as biltong and boerewors.
A reviewer wrote on a website: “Great butcher, extremely friendly and helpful, prices are great, and the biltong is amazing! I couldn’t recommend this place more.”
Another person wrote: “Smashing traditional butcher who goes that extra mile to help.”
Parking problem on Bournemouth Road
When I visited the shop, I parked at the Central Precinct carpark and walked across the road. Charles told me that parking has been a real problem for his business as parking is often difficult in front of the shops along Bournemouth Road.
Charles hopes that people can be a bit more considerate when parking there – if you take up the very few parking spaces, without supporting the business there, the local business will suffer.
We notice that some people park their cars there for hours at a time – it means that customers have nowhere to park. And businesses suffer as a result.
But who are the people who park their cars permanently there? If the cars belong to the shop owners or employees of the various shops there, would it help if their cars are parked at the back of the shops (Station Lane), freeing up some spaces for the customers?
Across the road are also some businesses. Perhaps their clients should consider parking at the designated spaces behind the shops there, instead of parking on this side of the shops?
Charles is concerned about the parking issue. He also shared with me the article he was reading on the parking problem along The Parade (shops on Bournemouth Road between School Land and Central Precinct).
Dumplings
Finally, let me show you some of the dumplings we made using the minced pork from Charles Baynham. Happy New Year! 新年快乐！
Note: For many years Charles Baynham looked like this:
I always try and buy the odd £5.00 worth of chicken breast and the odd goose egg when in Season.
Always good to drop in to have a natter with him. Very approachable guy.
Good we have him as a local butcher.
Mouthwatering pictures and article. I am becoming a vegetarian out here in Sri Lanka, getting tired of scraggy chicken and the ‘mutton’ which means goat, is always very chewy.
How I long for crispy bacon, black pudding, rack of lamb and a few slices of beef. Will soon be home and I will be able to indulge myself. Oh for a brace of pheasant cooked in Calvados.
But then I will start to miss the papaya and lime, the bitter gourd, jakfruit, the buffalo curd, the mangoes, fruit juice drinks and all the spices. Aubergines are a different variety here and delicious. Then there are endless varieties of dahl.
Great to know that is still a fine butchers. I worked there as my school time job on Tuesday evenings and Saturdays delivering meat orders on a trade bike like Granvilles in Open all hours. When I left school in September 1957 I worked there full time before going into the Royal Navy in January 1958.
It was then run and owned by a Mr L S Horn I wonder if he took over from Mr Horn. I know Mr Horn was ill and sadly died but Mr Bill Fox who worked there at the time I was there ran it for a while I think.
Bill Fox had domestic problems and eventually came and lodged with my parents in Station Lane after I had left for the Navy. I also rented the garage at the back of the shop in Station Lane which would have been about 1965 so Mr Horn would still have been there then. Mr Horn had a Riley 1.5 dark maroon and black parked one side and I rented the other; it was a good sized double garage.
How fascinating, Roger!! Thanks for sharing. Next time I’ll speak with Charles again and share with him these details. I believe that he is the 4th owner of the business there.
Perhaps one day you would like to visit him as well?
Thanks for adding these details, which form a bigger picture of the area.
Parking was a lot easier in 1958 Janet about 2 cars and my butchers bike and the butchers van a Morris Minor !!
Further to my earlier comment about Mr Horn, in Barbara Hilliers book a Pictorial History of Chandler’s Ford, picture 75 there is a photo of a Mr M Horn in an early motor car it states that the speed limit through the village was set at 10 mph.
This picture looks remarkably like the Mr Horn I worked for at the butchers. He was often referred to as Mick Horn, although his name was Leonard Swithun Horn – the name over the shop being L.S. Horn. It might be a bit early for him but maybe his father wonder if it was in the family and his son took it over, obviously a Chandler’s Ford family.
Maybe it is him as a 15 year old I didn’t dare ask my employer how old he was – would imagine he was in his early 40’s in the late 1950’s.