15411/1Butcher Francis May will be hanging up his cleaver and filleting knife for good in March after 40 years of serving Aldbourne villagers with their Sunday joints and cuts of meat.

In the 1960s when he moved to the butcher's shop, W Humphries, Aldbourne had four grocers, a fishmonger, bread was baked in the village and it had its own fish and chip shop.

There were also no fewer than four places in the village selling petrol.

Mr May had hoped to find someone to take over his business when he retired on March 26 but he told the Gazette this week that the chances of that were growing slim.

He said the biggest change he had seen over the years was people's shopping habits.

When he started at the shop working with the late Bill Humphries whose son Chris, the Kennet District Council leader, still owns the premises shopping was done at specific shops.

Bread came from bakeries, meat from butchers, and fish from a fishmongers and there was only one supermarket in Swindon, he thought.

Nowadays shoppers can go the a selection of supermarkets in Marlborough and Hungerford and buy all their commodities at one go.

Now Mr May, 64, and his wife Janet are looking to take the first long holiday of his working life a month's holiday in New Zealand.

The father-of-two said: "We were never able to go away for that length of time before. The longest holiday I have ever had before is ten days."