Game over for Ringwood toyseller! (From Thisisdorset)

Game over for Ringwood toyseller!

7:16pm Sunday 14th March 2010 in

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ONE of the oldest family-owned shops in Ringwood is to close after more than 90 years at the end of April.

Streets in Christchurch Road was founded by Charles Street in 1915. At first it served several functions, providing an ambulance service, coal deliveries, motor garage, petrol and cycle shop.

On Charles Street’s death in 1957 it passed to his youngest daughter Dorothy who ran it with her sister May, who was to work there for more than 70 years. Her special skill was re-upholstering prams and making new hoods and covers.

When Dorothy retired, May’s son Alan took over the operation. That was 40 years ago, and since then he has built it into one of the largest traditional toyshops in the area, attracting customers from not just Ringwood but also Poole, Bournemouth, Shaftesbury, Salisbury and Southampton.

Now, at the age of 70 and after two replacement knee operations, he has decided to retire.

With the advent of supermarket toy selling and the internet, he has not been able to market Streets as a going business.

He believes he now has a buyer lined up for the premises. But he will have to shed his five part-time staff before the shop closes at the end of April.

“I have told them and they know they will have lost their jobs. I’d been thinking about it from November or December time,” he said.

“They realise I can’t do it and there’s no-one else in the family that wants to carry it on. And these days, business is not easy, so it’s a question of closing it down. It’s a sad time, but needs must.”