A long-serving market trader who is a familiar face in Salisbury has called it a day after serving customers for decades.
Johnny Longley, who has worked on the market stalls for 38 years, marked his last day at Salisbury’s Charter Market on Saturday, October 15.
He said: “I’ve loved it. I couldn’t think of a better job really.”
On his final day at the market, the 76-year-old added: "I feel quite emotional about it."
His wife Jacqueline started a market stall selling their own poultry at Wilton Market 42 years ago with local dairy produce and game.
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A stall became vacant at Salisbury market within two years and the business expanded to include a farm stall in West Knoyle and one on Warminster market.
Johnny, who was originally a dairy farmer before concentrating on poultry, was soon lending a hand on the stall because refrigerated stalls needed to be brought in and set up. This saw the couple work side-by-side for many years.
When the business was sold to the couple’s game supplier Derek Sealy, who trades as Wiltshire Game, Jacqueline retired 12 years ago after 30 years of running market stalls.
Johnny continued to work for the new owners – working every Saturday on Salisbury market - but says the time has now come for him to retire.
He said: “I’m going to miss the customers obviously. I just feel it’s time.”
On what he has enjoyed most about his time on the market stall he says it’s the “rapport and camaraderie” with the customers.
Jacqueline recalls the “kindness of all the traders” especially when she first started running a stall on her own in Wilton and had an incident where a fellow trader helped her after her stall blew away.
“It has been wonderful,” said the 86-year-old.
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“What we’ve loved on the stall is we’ve got so many people from different walks of life. We’ve got absolutely everyone.”
Johnny says the idea for the market stall was inspired when they were holidaying in France and he saw the “excellent” local produce on offer.
“When we saw that on holiday in France we bought that idea back to England. We were poultry farmers so we could bring this produce through to retail,” he explains.
Even in his retirement, Johnny says he will still be keeping busy and continuing with his other two jobs – washing up at the Grosvenor Arms in Hindon and delivering newspapers.
“I’ll keep busy. I think Jacqui will have lots of Saturday jobs lined up for me,” joked the 76-year-old, who says he is especially looking forward to having a lie-in on Saturday morning instead of the early starts on the market after late nights working at the pub.
The couple, who have been married for 45 years and live in Tisbury after retiring from their farm in West Knoyle 12 years ago, are now looking forward to being able to do more things and go out on Saturdays.
They say that "continuity is assured" on the stalls which are managed by Phil Ridout.
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