A Clarke Electrical Services in Shipston’s High Street is to close after 60 years trading
A FAMILY-RUN shop will close its doors for good next weekend, after 60 years of trading.
A Clarke Electrical Services in Shipston’s High Street opened in 1965 and is part of the community thanks to its reputation for quality and customer service.
As well as stocking big ticket items such as washing machines, tumble dryers and vacuum cleaners, it also carries electric fans, air fryers, soda streams, digital radios, kettles, hairdryers, fan heaters and clocks and kitchen and household items from teapots, mugs and cafetieres down to light bulbs.
Owner Adrian Clarke, 64, who started working in the store as a teenager, says he will be sad to finish and will really miss his customers.
He said: “I had a diagnosis for blood cancer last year, I’m not far off retirement and with trading the way it is, this seems the right time.
“We sell a reasonable amount of small things but people go online for larger appliances, as the electrical trade has been particularly hard hit by the internet.
“It’s another case of a smaller high street independent being pushed out.”
Adrian ran the family’s Stow-on-the-Wold branch for more than 30 years, before it closed in 2022.
His brother Roger, who also worked in the business from his teens, managed the Shipston store until 2016 when Adrian took over.
The company has always focused on major brands such as Bosch, Siemens, Miele, Kenwood and Roberts Radios.
Adrian, who has three grandchildren aged four to 13, pointed out: “We wouldn’t sell anything we wouldn’t use ourselves and we’re all great believers in a quality product that lasts.”
Adrian’s father Ron, who’s 103, opened his first shop in Wellesbourne after he left the Air Force where he was an electrician.
Although it’s the end of an era with the shop closing, the spark lives on as Adrian’s son [name and age tbc] is a qualified electrician who started his own business last year.
The plan is that another business will eventually move in to the building, owned by Ron, and the Clarke family say they’ve had enquiries but are keen to make sure it’s a company that “adds value to the town”.
Adrian, who’s been a retained firefighter for 25 years, added: “I’ve worked all my life but I’m taking a break now, as my health is more important.
“This will be our final week in the shop and it’s going to be quite emotional when we close the door for the final time, because of the history of the business and the fact that we feel so very much part of this community.”
