A SHOE repair business which has served Abingdon for more than 100 years is set to close.

Bailey Shoe Repairs has been in the town since 1903.

Owner Harry Downey, who has spent 53 years at the shop, will close the doors next month when he retires.

Mr Downey, 70, started in 1956 when it was in a former coal store across the road. He was trained at a Barnardo’s technical college before being taken on by the original owner’s son, Ron Bailey, when he was 15.

He bought the business in 1984 and has been unsuccessfully trying to sell it for the last three years.

He said: “I’ve enjoyed my time here but the end has got to come at some time, and I think at my age I’ve done my fair stint.

“It’s been a big part of my life, but it’s not the place I will miss, it’s the contact with the customers.”

Along with the hundreds of ticket stubs which litter the shop’s floor, there are more than 50 items which customers have never collected.

A century old polishing machine continues to serve the shop, as does a stitching machine which was bought secondhand more than 50 years ago.

Mr Downey said: “We’ve got a machine here that the original owner bought more than 100 years ago, so everything is old, just like myself.

“Throughout the years I’ve seen all sorts, and there is always a new material coming in which gives a new challenge. I can remember one lady coming in and asking if I was into whipping. I told her only by appointment. It turned out she wanted her riding crop repaired, which I did.”

Mr Downey said the shoe styles he dealt with changed over the decades, but brogues had remained ever-popular.

He continued: “There were the winkle pickers which were very pointed shoes, then we had the chisel toes, which were flat toes, then we had the brothel creepers which had big crepe soles.

“But now it has come full circle and we are starting to see the pointed toes and the flat toes come back.”

Brian Dunsdon, who will also retire after 43 years at the shop, said: “I wouldn’t say it was like a marriage but we had our ups and our downs.”

Peter Wiblin, co-president of Abingdon Chamber of Commerce, said: “It is always sad when a unique business disappears.

“The shop has been a great service to the community.”