AFTER 15 years of serving customers at their Aladdin’s cave of a shop, Wilson’s, Barnard Castle, David and Pamela Wilson, are calling time and retiring.
The husband-and-wife team, from Durham, announced earlier this month they are to close their Horsemarket shop, which sells everything from dog treats to gas bottles, at the end of this week.
Horologist Mr Wilson, who has worked on a number of iconic clocks including Durham Cathedral’s, said: “We’ve had loads of people coming in since trying to get their watches repaired before we go.
“We have still got a shop in Durham market that our son runs and Pam is only semi-retiring and she will be working there about three days a week.”
He added: “We have had some wonderful, loyal customers. It is just getting harder and harder to make a living so we thought now was the right time to go.
“We’ve just had enough of the slog coming to and from Durham.”
Mr Wilson said he is looking forward to more of a social life, attending Masons meetings and planning to set up a workshop at home.
Mrs Wilson said: “Barnard Castle people have been great to us and we will miss the people but we won’t miss the slog.”
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
