CHIPPING Sodbury’s longest-serving shopkeeper who has been instrumental in creating the town’s busy events calendar is preparing to lock up for the last time.

Penni Tanner, who for the past 33 years has opened her gift shop Penny Farthings six days a week, is closing down as she and husband Dave retire from retail.

Penni, 66, a familiar face to many in Chipping Sodbury, said it was the right time to leave the High Street.

“We are not getting any younger and I have been ill and Dave is in remission from prostate cancer,” she said. “It is time to give up and we have lots of exciting things to come.”

Former drawing room assistant at British Aerospace, Penni bought the business lease in 1982 from former gift shop Haines based in what is now the St Peter’s Hospice men’s and children’s charity shop.

“I went into Haines in 1981 to buy a gift and they said they were leaving,” she said. “I thought they cannot go as it is such a nice shop for the area.”

The decision to buy the lease was less a shrewd business move and more a need to overcome her personal grief.

“I knew I would never have children as I had an ectopic pregnancy,” said Penni, who went on to run the National Association for the Childless.

“I know I would always have to work but it had never occurred to me to get into business. I thought it would give me a life.”

The shop was renamed Penny Farthings and moved to the other side of the High Street in 1997 when the Tanners bought and converted their family home.

Working alongside fellow community-minded shopkeepers including Lesley Wood from Lesanne, Penni helped reform the Chipping Sodbury Chamber of Trade in 1984, establish the town’s flower festival. She worked to resurrect the Sodbury Festival taking part in many carnival floats and it was her idea to hold a Victorian Evening, which is now attended by thousands of people each December, after attending a similar event in Portishead.

“We had a lot of fun,” she said. “I am very proud of what I have achieved looking back over the years.

“We have been very lucky with the support we have received from people coming in the shop and I am going to miss that contact with people.

“We are very grateful for the support as we are not museums, we are functioning shops and unless people support local shops then all the activities in the town would not happen.”

Penni and Dave, 73, who retired as an electronics engineer for British Aeropsace to help in the shop in 1992, are holding a retirement sale of up to 50 per cent off. The couple, who have been married for 46 years, have not decided on a closing day yet but they will remain in Chipping Sodbury.