Family-run Glastonbury store closes after 99 years

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The couple have run the store since 1973

A Somerset couple are marking their golden wedding anniversary by closing a hardware shop their family has run for 99 years.

Rod, 75, and Anita Curtis, 71, will shut the doors on Glastonbury's A W G Curtis & Son for the final time on Friday.

Before the couple took over running it in 1973, Mr Curtis' father owned it from 1924.

Mrs Curtis said: "I've loved every minute."

She added: "It's been hard but we've got there."

But Mrs Curtis explained that the job had become harder over time and they were often up until after two in the morning.

Rod's father opened the store in 1924

"It's hard work to run it now," she told BBC Radio Somerset. "We have to collect everything - we don't have anything delivered.

"Sometimes we're working until one or two o'clock in the morning.

"Everybody comes in and asks 'have you got (this)?' and we say 'no, but we can get it by Tuesday'."

Before the couple took over running the store in Benedict Street in 1973, Mr Curtis' father had run it for 49 years.

The couple will continue to live in the premises although will no longer have to endure the bell going off 365 days a year, Mrs Curtis explained.

She revealed that one year a pub rang them just before 22:00 GMT on Christmas Eve to say they had run out of gas.

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"I said it's ten to ten on Christmas Eve but in they came," she said.

Mr Curtis also joked how his wife is keener on retiring than he is.

"I love the adrenaline and company of customers coming in," he said. "However I am sure my managing director will cope (with the store closing)."

Responding, Mrs Curtis replied: "I've not paid him to say this."

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