Tears, cheers and presents galore marked a poignant farewell at Marlborough’s White Horse Bookshop last night (Thursday) to Christine Ellis, the longest serving member of staff who has decided to retire.
Devoted customers packed the High Street bookshop and toasted her farewell at a retirement party to celebrate her lifetime serving them for 46 years.
And they showered Chris, as she is known, with bouquets of flowers, chocolates, wine and endless cards to ensure she will never forget the final chapter in her career.
It comes at a moment when Michael Pooley, 71-year-old owner of the bookshop, has sold the business, which originally opened in Marlborough in 1948, and it is about to undergo a major refurbishment project.
“The response was fantastic — I just couldn’t believe it, absolutely incredible,” Chris, who joined the staff straight from school and never intended to stay there permanently, told Marlborough News Online.
I was so overwhelmed by it all after being given “eight bouquets of flowers, a rose shrub, chocolates, a cut glass bowl that is absolutely out of this world, wine and a bottle of cognac, all from customers. It was absolutely amazing.
“Then there were all the cards wishing me well. That really got me when I came home last night. I burst into tears because some of the messages were so touching. It really brought home the fact that I am actually going.”
Chris, who lives in Newby Acre, Marlborough, added: “I am now going to be a full-time carer for my husband, Barry, who is disabled. So it will be good to spend quality time with him and have time for myself and my hobbies.
“No more rushing around…it will take a while to get used to that but with better weather hopefully on the way I look forward to that.”
Paying tribute to Chris, Mr Pooley, the bookshop’s third owner, told customers: “Everyone one of you here will know Chris. She is the face of the Whitehorse Bookshop.
“She has done literally every single job in the shop, which is a remarkable feat, an absolute mainstay of the shop. Chris has done a fantastic job here and I am proud indeed to have been here while she’s been here.”
He also said au revoir to two other retirement age members of the bookshop team – it’s own Mrs Mopp, otherwise June Pike, who has been keeping the shop clean and tidy for 38 years, and part-time art department assistant Jenny Smithers.
And there were even cries or a toast to Mr Pooley as the bookshop is about to close until temporarily before the revamped premises are re-opened on April 5 under newly-appointed manager Angus MacLennan.
Mr Pooley recalled when he bought the freehold of the listed 17th century property in 1973.
“The owners then actually lived upstairs in what is now the staff department and even had a marvellous grand piano in what was their living room,” he told Marlborough News Online. “And it is going to be first class again when it is converted back to sell more books – but without the grand piano.
“How many books have I sold here? The stock is about 120,000. If you turn that over three times a year, which you should do, you can work out how many we have sold since 1973.”
Among the many present at the party were Nick Fogg, twice Marlborough’s mayor and an author himself on Shakespeare, together with Nick Maurice, whose forebears created Marlborough’s medical practice, the first of its kind in the country, and Marlborough’s Rector, the Rev Canon Andrew Studdert-Kennedy.
“I am an old customer and a great supporter of independent bookshops,” he told Marlborough News Online. “White Horse is a great feature of the High Street here and it is fantastic that it is going to continue after the fears that it might close.”
Cakes, Singing for Laughs and Comic Relief at St Peter’s on Saturday evening
