A BELOVED family-run DIY shop that has served its community for over 100 years is closing its doors for good.
The traditional ironmongers, affectionately nicknamed the “Four Candles shop” by regulars after The Two Ronnies sketch, has been praised for its old-school service and friendly advice.
Based in Christchurch, Dorset, Castles Home Hardware has been part of the town’s high street since 1922.
But after almost 104 years, its owners say they can no longer make ends meet.
Siblings Brian and Gary Adams, who have run the store for decades, told the Daily Echo, the business has been hit by a “perfect storm” of rising rent, roadworks chaos and Labour’s tax changes.
They are now holding a closing-down sale before the doors shut for good.
Brian said: “It has become increasingly difficult for small businesses to thrive in the current climate and it is with a heavy heart that we have to close the business after 104 years of trading.
“There are four factors that have led to this.
“The local council has lost the plot. I have lost count of the number of times the road outside has been closed for roadworks.
“When they do it is absolute chaos and customers can’t park. There’s roadworks outside now.
“There is a car park close by with 150 spaces that the council has sold for housing. People just can’t park at this end of the high street.
“The government is getting rid of business rate relief, so from next April where we paid £16,000 a year we would be paying up to £50,000.
“The increase in National Insurance and minimum wage hasn’t helped.
“We have had to let staff go from the shop and haven’t replaced them because it is no longer cost effective.
“And our landlord is putting the rent up from £38,000 to £45,000 next year.
“We just can’t afford it anymore, it’s impossible.
“We can’t put our prices up because we have to compete with Wicks, B&Q and Screwfix.
“Our two suppliers have gone bust and we can’t find any other suppliers willing to sell anything less than pallet loads of stock and we just haven’t got the storage for it.
“The majority of our customers are people of a certain age. They don’t like to buy online, they prefer to come in and see and feel and smell what they are buying.
“The local and national governments haven’t got a clue.
“The national government has no idea about the general public. They haven’t got the foggiest about how life in the real world works. They are just out for themselves.”
The shop’s loyal customers have expressed sadness online, calling it “the end of an era” and praising the Adams brothers for keeping a true “old-fashioned British shop” alive for so long.
Across the country, independent DIY and home stores are being squeezed out as rising costs and online shopping take their toll.
Earlier this year, Harringtons Hardware in Taunton shut its doors after 85 years, saying trade had “collapsed” due to competition from retail chains.
In Devizes, Marlborough Ironmongers, a 97-year-old business, announced its closure in the summer after what the owner called “a brutal year of bills and bureaucracy.”
And Handyman Supplies in Shrewsbury, which survived both world wars, closed in March blaming “crippling rent rises and falling footfall.”
A BCP Council spokesperson said the by-pass car park in Christchurch was sold to Christchurch Town Council in September 2025 and is still operated as a public car park by Waitrose.
They added that three other council-run car parks remain open nearby, providing a total of 584 spaces.
On the issue of ongoing roadworks, the council said the work is being undertaken by a private contractor alongside Wessex Water.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 2025, will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
