IT’S the end of an era for a family business which has been at the heart of a town centre for 145 years.

Doling, which has had its roots in and around Dalton Road, Barrow, since 1871, is closing on Saturday November 28.

Four generations of the Doling family have run the ironmongers, hardware and houseware store, garden machinery and marine chandlery business.

Alan Doling started as a Saturday boy in the store aged seven.

Now as he turns 68 next week he is retiring, along with his wife Debbie.

The couple have thanked their staff from over the years and generations of customers, many of whom have been popping into the Buccleuch Street store to pass on their good wishes and pick up items in the sale.

Mr Doling said: “I started at seven so I’ve done 60 years, it’s time for a rest. It is sentimental but we have to look forward.

“I’m being practical about it. It will be tinged with very fond memories.

“We’ve been very touched by the number of people who have been in and wished us a lovely retirement or said ‘we wish you weren’t closing, you’ve always treated us nicely’.

“We’d like Dolings to be remembered as being fair and reasonable to all our customers. We know our products and we know quality.”

Mrs Doling said: “Dolings has always been in the town. We’ve had lovely customers – people have shopped with us for a long time and their parents and grandparents have shopped here too.

“We would like to thank them all for their good wishes and their custom. We’ve had lovely and loyal staff and we thank them, too.”

Mr Doling’s great-grandfather George William started the business in 1871 where Poundland is in Dalton Road.

It then moved to 210 Dalton Road and 207 Dalton Road, where it was taken over by Alan’s grandfather Charles Arthur and then his father Harold George.

After finishing school, Alan George worked alongside his father and mother Joyce.

Mr Doling recalled childhood memories of his excitement at working in the shop every Saturday. He’d pump paraffin into a government-stamped measure and decant it into customers’ containers.

He said: “The interesting thing is that there was a roaring cork stove burning just six feet away at the back.”

That paraffin would later become a strenuous task. He said: “If you drew the short straw, you had a delivery round to the top floor of the flats on Barrow Island, because you had to carry 25 litres of paraffin all the way from the street to the top.”

He remembers wading through brown paper behind the counter and how the chamois leathers were piled high in a bath where they were stored.

He said: “We stocked 20 types of wash leathers and that aroma was there – that will always stick in my mind.”

Mr Doling said that since the 1950s the most consistent seller has been cookware.

The Dolings plan to do fell walking, boating and take holidays during their retirement.