Dudley toy and cycle shop will close next week after 160 years
A toy and cycle business which has been in a Black Country village for 160 years will finally close its doors next weekend.
Dan Price, who was born in the cellar of the business in High Holborn, Sedgley, is retiring on Saturday (September 20) at the age of 85, along with his sister Pat Smith.
"I feel sad, it's been my life for the past 60 years," he said.
"It's not a job you where you lock up at 5.30, and say 'that's it', it has been everything."
The business dates back to 1865 when Dan's great-grandfather D J Price and his wife opened a cycle shop from the front of their terraced house in High Holborn, Sedgley.
At its height, the business also had branches in Great Bridge, Kingswinford and Wolverhampton.
But Mr Price told the Express & Star in April that a combination of a decline in traditional toys, the move towards internet shopping, and tax rises in last year's Budget meant was not possible to sell the business on to a new owner.
He had hoped to sell of his remaining stock before closing. But he said a deal and now been agreed to sell the building to a neighbouring children's nursery, and he needed to vacate the premises.
"The shop is now full of bargains," he said.
Mr Price said the business expanded in 1885 when it acquired a former nail factory in neighbouring Tipton Street and began making bikes, which were sold under the Sedgley Beacon name.
"They were available in any colour you like, so long as it was black, with gold and red lines to set them off," he said
In the 1930s, Mr Price's father Bernard took over the shop, which was renamed B D Price.
"An extension was built, that virtually doubled the size of the production facility," he said. "But when the war came along, the factory was taken over for special war production, making beds for troop ships and hospitals, and the bike production was wound down after that."
Dan was born in the cellar of the shop in High Holborn in 1940, and found himself helping out at an early age. But after leaving school he instead decided to train as an accountant, returning in the mid 1960s following the death of his father.
"When my father died in the early 60s, my mother decided to continue running the shop," he said. The construction of a new shopping parade in Sedgley High Street allowed the business to move to a more spacious shop, and business boomed.
"We were one of the first stockists of Playmobil," he recalled. In the late 1980s, as the lease on the shop came to an end, the opportunity arose for him to return to High Holborn, when the original premises and a neighbouring butcher's shop came onto the market.
"That enabled us to demolish the two terraced properties, and build the current store with an office above."
Today, the shop - which is located, more or less, on the site where it started - seems like a relic from a bygone era, even if the premises themselves are actually quite modern. Shelves and shelves of Airfix kits, train sets Corgi models and Scalextric cars. Tins of paint, brushes and polystyrene cement, an aisle of dolls, and dozens of bikes next to the cash register.
He said the business had only been able to survive in recent years through online sales, and because he owned the premises and did not need to worry about a lease.
"The young lads don't buy Airfix kits, its all click click, click on their electronic devices," said Mr Price.
"I recently saw a man who said 'I used to make toy prams for you', but how many girls do you see pushing toy prams today?
"We don't sell board games any more, either, people don't play them, it is all click, click on the computer games.
"The majority of our customers today are older people who collect the toys and models that they had as kids for nostalgic purposes."
Also calling it a day will be Dan's sister Pat Smith, although she has largely taken a back seat from the business in recent years.
