GKerrush

Last updated 01:00, Friday, 13 July 2007

IT WAS the end of an era in Workington this month when Frank and Dorothy Carruthers closed the doors of the town’s longest-established fruit and vegetable business for the last time.

The popular couple have seen town life come and go past the ever-open doors of their Market Place shop for more than 30 years, but have decided that it’s time for a change.

Dorothy, better known as Dot, said: “We were both ready for calling it a day. Last year we said we would have one more Christmas and one more plant season and then we would retire.

“At least we have gone out on a high - the supermarkets have never managed to squeeze us out and we have had some fantastic customers.”

Just how popular Frank and Dot have been, and how loyal their customers, is illustrated by the hundreds of cards, gifts and bouquets which have been pouring into the 18th century building which has been their home and workplace since 1976.

The building bore the name Carruthers in large letters carved into the stonework for many years before Frank and Dot moved in.

It belonged to Frank’s great-uncle Albert Carruthers who ran it as TA Carruthers and Son, grocers, from the 1920s.

It was later run by Albert’s son Joseph, and Frank and Dot were lucky enough to successfully bid for the building after Joseph’s sudden death in his 50s.

Frank, 67, who was born just round the corner in Nook Street, has been connected with the fruit and vegetable trade from an early age.

A playmate at St John’s School was the late Bill Mounsey, and the two lads used to play together in the yard of Bill’s family business, Cross and Mounsey fruit and vegetable wholesalers.

After leaving Newlands School at the age of 15, Frank spent a year at the steelworks. But shift working didn’t agree with him and he went to work for R&W Sowerby on their produce stalls at markets in Whitehaven and Cockermouth.

Frank said: “I learned to drive in Sowerbys’ big van. Then I went back to Cross and Mounsey’s - but I wasn’t playing this time!”

After he married Dorothy - a Moresby Parks girl who used to work at Sekers’ mill at Hensingham - Frank took the plunge and went self-employed.

He said: “I bought an old Co-op flat-back coal wagon, put a top on it and took it round the villages selling fruit and veg.”

Later, the couple had a stall at Workington market when it was at Hagg Hill - “We stood outside the Hippodrome” remembered Dot - and later moved with it to the old town precinct.

Dot added: “Frank knew the fruit and veg trade inside out, but he had to teach me because I had worked in a factory.”

The business went from strength to strength, allowing them to buy the Market Place premises as a permanent base in 1976 and move from their rented home in Christian Street.

It was there that they brought up their children, Richard, who is a chef in Rutland and Linda, who is a florist and runs the nearby Floral Design business.

Frank and Dot are grandparents to her children, Gemma, Gareth and Owen, aged three.

During their years in business, Frank and Dot have seen the tastes of Workington folk slowly change.

Frank said: “Carrots, cabbage and turnip used to be the staples. But now people are willing to try anything - asparagus, chillis and peppers were hardly seen 20 or 25 years ago but now they’re very popular.

“Foreign holidays enabled people to try new things and they liked to be able to buy them when they got home.”

He remembers that when he started out on his own, his weekly wage was £11 - just enough to buy one box of apples at 2007 prices.

The couple have no great plans for retirement, although now that he doesn’t have to get up at 1am twice a week to drive to Liverpool for supplies, Frank is looking forward to a lie-in.

Dot said: “We’re very happy at home and we’re quite happy to stay where we are. When the shop was open we had to go away if we wanted a break and now it will be nice just to have time at home - it’s just been work and sleep for years!”

Gifts included a cake made and decorated with fruit and vegetables by friend Doraine Stabler, of Impressions restaurant, but the couple have had so many cards that they haven’t had time to count them yet.