ONE of Trowbridge’s oldest businesses has announced that it will close its doors this summer.

After trading for more than 115 years, kitchen and giftware shop HB Pitt in Silver Street will call time on trading after struggling for several years to compete with online shopping websites.

Ann Mason, a director and the manager of the much-loved shop, said it has been difficult to keep up with changing tastes of customers but hopes that the business goes out on a high.

“There’s been all sorts of reasons but the bottom line is we’re not taking enough money,” she said.

“Over the past few years the gift trade has started to deteriorate, particularly in the ornamental and collectable lines. People were making their homes less cluttered. Tastes have changed and there’s no longer the desire for gifts that there once was.

“We’ve tried over the past two or three years to tailor our business to suit the needs of the customer, however we have been unable to compete with the internet and larger organisations that have greater purchasing power than us.”

Mrs Mason, who has been running the shop for 21 years, employs five part-time staff and a Saturday girl.

The Grade II-listed two-storey building, with its historic frontage, is now on the market, for sale or rent, through property consultancy Carter Jonas.

Tom Parker of Carter Jonas said: “It is sad to see such an established and popular store as HB Pitt closing after being part of Trowbridge for so many years but it seems that the changing times have caught up with it. I am confident, though, that we will be able to find a buyer or a new tenant in the not too distant future. The building has a great deal of history and is in a good location near to the town centre and on route to the post office.”

The shop will close on August 31 and Mrs Mason said she would be taking all of the staff to the pub to raise a glass to 116 years of Trowbridge history.