Long-serving independent Hartlepool cobbler Bill Reid set to retire after 35 years in Middleton Grange shopping centre

Bill Reid, who runs First Class shoe repair and key cutting business, has become a familiar face to generations of customers in Middleton Grange shopping centre.

But on Saturday, June 22, he will say a fond farewell as he retires after 35 years.

Bill, 66, started his own business in 1989 after learning his trade with various national shoe repair stores including Timpson, Binns and Coombes.

He moved to his current location in the shopping centre in the mid 1990s when Asda, where he had been trading, moved to the Marina.

Bill said: “Where I am now was a storage cupboard used by the shopping centre to keep cleaning materials.

"I just happened to walk past one day and saw it open and asked the centre manager if I could rent it. About a week later I opened up.”

Bill has survived recessions and the Covid pandemic to become one of the longest-serving tenants in the shopping centre.

Poignant moments have included being asked to engrave a silver salver when Princess Diana died in 1997 which was sent to Buckingham Palace on behalf of the people of Hartlepool.

The strangest pair of shoes he was ever asked to repair was when the circus was in town and a clown brought his enormous shoes in to be mended.

But it is his loyal customers that Bill will miss the most.

"The high point for me has been serving the wonderful people of Hartlepool,” he said.

"I have never woke up in the morning and thought ‘I have got to go into work today’. The amount of people you see and who stop for a chat, it’s like a meeting place.

"But it’s time to say ‘let’s move on.’”

Bill, married to Jackie, decided to step back from the business after deciding not to renew his lease following a number of health scares in recent years.

But the business will continue with a new tenant. Bill said: “He will take the business to the next level.

"I’m convinced it’s going to be in good, safe hands.”