FASHIONISTAS in Headington were gutted in May 1990 when one of the area's longest-running ladies' clothes shops shut its doors for the final time.

Margot Forbes, who ran Miranda with her son Peter, decided that month that the time had come to retire.

Mr Forbes, who had helped his mother run the shop for the last decade of its 31 years, told the Oxford Mail: "My mother is 70 and feels the time has come for her to retire.

"It's very sad to close a family business after 31 years in which we've made a lot of good friends and customers in Oxford."

Mr Forbes said the introduction of the uniform business rating system – which pushed up the shop's rates bill by £1,000 that year – had contributed to the decision, but was not the main factor.

The Headington shop was once part of a small chain owned by Mrs Forbes, who had lived in the city for nearly 50 years and once stood as a Liberal candidate in local elections.