AFTER 55 years working in Darwen Market Hall, trader Eileen Guy is to finally retire next week.

Having been recruited to help on The Grotto stall by her mum Mabel Eatough as a 12-year-old, Eileen, now 67, said the change would be ‘a big wrench’.

Looking back on her time selling ornaments and gifts, she said: “I was asked to help out by my mum and never got paid for it, but I must have liked it because I stayed. Everyone was friends with everyone else, it was one big happy family.

“A lot of the customers are very loyal and have become my friends. In all my time here I’ve learnt patience and understanding, and I’ve fulfilled an agony aunt role for a lot of customers.”

While still helping out on the stall, Eileen studied nursing at Blackburn Royal Infirmary and Accrington Victoria Hospital. She gave that up to raise four children in the 1970s, and fully took over running the stall from her mother in 1980.

She said: “Fashions have changed over the years. My mum made leather bags and purses and her own jewellery, but there was no way I was doing that, so I have bought everything in. Also, back in the 1950s, you didn’t sell all the hair accessories we have today.”

While clearing out stock from the cellar of Darwen Town Hall, Mrs Guy, of Pole Lane, said she had come across several ‘blasts from the past’, including an unsold Cliff Riichard grooming kit from his 1960s heyday.

She will close the stall in the Market Hall and, after a holiday to Greece with husband Terry, will temporarily move into the three-day market to clear the rest of the items at reduced prices.

She will remain as chair of Darwen Shop and Business Association and as a member of Darwen Town Centre Partnership Board and is resolute in her opinion that ‘you can buy 99 per cent of what you need in Darwen’.

Blackburn with Darwen Mayor Karimeh Foster said: “The market will be worse for her leaving.”

Keith Holden, markets manager, said: “We wish Eileen a long and relaxing retirement and all the best for the future.”