Store couple head for retirement after working 10 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week in heart of community

IT was 1967. The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper, Twiggy wowed the world with the mini-skirt, the QE2 was launched – and young Dougie Raine started working in the village shop.

It was about the last event that was to have lasting significance for the residents of Sandsend, near Whitby. After nine years working in Sandsend Stores, Dougie and his wife Irene bought the place in 1976 – and have only now decided to retire.

For 34 years the couple have worked in the business 10 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, shutting only on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and rising before 5am every day to deliver the papers.

Now Dougie, 67, and Irene, 62, have sold up and will spend their last day behind the counter on February 15. Until now not even the Queen could persuade them to shut up shop.

The couple made national headlines for the Millennium by turning down an invitation from Her Majesty to join other local worthies at the opening of the Millennium Dome.

Mr Raine said: “They said I would get locked up in the Tower of London for refusing the Queen. The Queen wanted ever so many local people there and someone nominated us.

“I thought it was a stitch-up when I got the letter. I would not believe it and did not tell anyone about it for days. Then I rang up and found it was all true.

“They were forecasting all the computers to crash. So the package included a chauffeur-driven car to London in case the railways were not running.

“There was also two nights in a hotel and loads of spending money included. But we refused it. The village had already organised a village party at the old Bungalow Hotel.”

Mr Raine, whose father was a porter at Sandsend railway station, was born and bred in Sandsend. He had been away from home working as a steeplejack when he got made redundant.

He returned home for few weeks and offered to help former store owner Cyril Stanforth out in the shop. Nine years later Mr Stanforth retired, and the Raines bought the business.

At the time, the shop was quite rundown and like many businesses of its kind stocked little apart from supermarket-type goods and the same old tired magazines and comics.

An early moneyspinner was to become one of the first newsagents to stock an extensive range of American superhero and horror comics, such as Batman, Spiderman, Superman, Supergirl, Fantastic Four, Tales from the Crypt, and other cult titles.

“A travelling rep called into the shop one day we agreed to try them. I thought they were utter rubbish myself – but they went like wildfire,” Mr Raine recalled.

The Raines also made a name for themselves by dumping the run-of-the-mill supermarket lines and stocking nothing but the best. They also snapped up the beach shop in the village.

In the early years Sandsend was almost totally without proper TV reception (it did not really get it until Sky TV was launched). The village had a very short season and virtually closed for business every September.

Now greater leisure time means the village enjoys visitors for most of the year round. New businesses have sprung up, but the Raines have been running what is the only general store,

Over the years they have seen many changes. The old weighing machines with brass weights and the sliding till were pensioned off – but often appeared as props in the TV show Heartbeat.

The old stone flagstone floor, which provided a deliciously cool atmosphere in the shop for two centuries, became a casualty of health and safety requirements for the laying of non-slip surfacing.

The Raines also became the guiding lights of the scheme to provide the village with its own sports centre in Lythe Bank. They will carry on fundraising for the project and Mr Raine is also doing the coast to coast walk for the Macmillan nurses in May.

The shop now passes to new owner Frazier Canfield, from Saltburn.

Mr Raine, who was a volunteer coastguard for 20 years, added: “We are sad to be leaving. We have been so lucky we have met so many lovely people.

“We have devoted our lives to the village and it is time to have some time to ourselves to spend with our grandchildren. We have TV now as well –and it’s even colour.”