J.B. GAYNAN & Sons Jewellers has been serving Ledbury for 75 years this year.

It is a real family business with its heart in the town. We spoke to owner Karen Owens about the business which is situated in the Homend.

How long have you been involved with the business? I`ve been involved at Gaynans for 35 years.

What is your best selling product? The best selling items are jewellery.

What is the strangest request you have had at the business? I haven`t had any really strange requests over the years, but I was commissioned recently to make a solid gold cat collar!

The shop has been a jewellers since 1890 when it belonged to Charles Lucas Berkeley and subsequently passed onto his son Lucas Berkeley up until 1947.

Prior to 1890, it was a bakery and only 10 years ago we discovered an old bread branding iron in the cellar.

My grandfather James Bernard Gaynan together with my Great Uncle Roly Dudfield bought the shop off Lucas Berkeley in 1947 and they opened the shop on the 1st February.

What a year! Well it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. Children in the town never went to school for weeks.

The town traders had to clear the pavements.

The snow was piled high up on the kerbside and alleyways were cut through to enable people to cross to the other side of the road.

The milkman, Mr Bill from Wellington Heath delivered the milk by pony and sleigh.

My grandmother went out into the street with a large jug and the milk was ladled out from a large churn.

A Midland Red bus got stuck going up the British Camp, Malvern and was fast covered with snow and had to be abandoned.

It wasn’t found for several weeks!  Of course, when the thaw eventually came, serious flooding was the next problem.

However, the British Camp was still white with snow on the first day of June.