With a heavy heart we have to close..

Department store shuts after 240yrs

- DAN WARBURTON

ONE of Britain's oldest department stores is closing down after 242 years, due to soaring costs.

Eve & Ranshaw has operated from the same site since opening in 1781.

And the store, in the market town of Louth, Lincolnshire, has been run by the same family for three generations.

Owner Marcus Sandwith said: "It is with a heavy heart that we have to close.

"We hoped for a long time that we could recover from the difficult Covid years and continue to modernise and trade, however, as with a lot of department stores, the market is very tough.