PROFILE: Alton - Historic Farmers Market

Alton is a long-established market town with roots going back to Roman times and well known as a centre of the brewing trade. It serves a large area of rural North East Hampshire and its historic villages, including Jane Austen's home of Chawton and Gilbert White's home at Selborne, while traditional markets are still held in the town each week. Farmers' markets have also made a recent come-back and having proved extremely successful, have now become regular occurrences.

It has a lively High Street with a good variety of local and national traders including Marks & Spencer's Simply Food, Sainsbury's, well known coffee shop franchises and quirky individual delicatessens and gift shops.

There is also a small, privately run cinema which shows all the latest releases.

The town centre is laced with narrow alleyways dating back to mediaeval times, and many of the buildings are listed or in a Conservation Area. It does not stand still, however. There is also a thriving industrial estate with many small to medium sized companies covering a wide sector of the 2lst century market including several internet start-up companies as well as a large home and garden store.

Its local sixth form college has gained an excellent reputation and is always placed high in the national league tables, as are its secondary schools, of which it has both state and private examples.

It lies w within easy distance of larger centres such as Basingstoke, Winchester and Guildford, and both commuters and shoppers appreciate its setting at the end of a direct railway link with London's Waterloo station.

It is also at the end of the line for the Watercress Line steam railway, running through villages between Alton and Alresford.

With a population of around 17,0()0, it is also home to businessmen and women from a wide breadth of the service industries.