A CHAPTER will close in the retail world of Monmouth this Saturday when one of the town’s ‘jewels’ will retire.

Caroline Pearce has been working for Boots in Monmouth for more than 40 years and is taking early retirement, finishing with her first employer this Saturday, 18th November.

She left Monmouth Comprehensive School in 1978 at 15 years old and started work as a youth apprentice at the Boots store when it was at No 1 Monnow Street, where Biggie Best is now.

“If the employer was happy with your work you were kept on and luckily for me, one of the staff went on maternity leave so I was made supervisor,” said Caroline.

Boots relocated to their present shop when they took over the former ‘Edwards of Monmouth’ showroom. “I was here with my hard hat on while they were refurbishing the shop, putting up shelves and deciding where to put everything,” she said.

There was a lot to do as there was a middle staircase leading to the upper showroom which had to be taken out and Caroline remembers that a baby’s cot had been left behind.

Having seen generations of customers come through the door, she has seen customers come in with babies and is now serving those babies who have grown up who have come in with their own babies; “I have actually employed a daughter of a Saturday girl that I employed many years ago,” she recalled.

Talking of the transition from old currency to decimal, she remembers having to stay overnight and peel off “thousands and thousands” of the ‘1s 6d’ labels and replace them with a 15p sticker, as each item was individually marked in those days.

She recalled at 4pm every Christmas Eve when the pubs closed, “all the gentlemen who had had one too many used to come in to the shop with £20 and ask for a present for the ‘mrs’. They didn’t really care what it was and some would even ask us to wrap it up as well!”

She plans to have a rest now, although she is one of the stars in next week’s ‘Are you being Served’ at the Savoy Theatre where she is playing the part of Mrs Slocombe.

“That was a shock, when did that happen?” Caroline exclaimed, “I always saw myself as a Miss Brahms!”