Jewellers set for retirement after 50 years in trade

Tim and Sue Clayton have run a shop on Chapel Street, near the centre of King's Lynn, since 1987.

Before that, they sold jewellery and antiques from the Saturday Market Place, while Mr Clayton started out trading as Tim Clayton Jewellery from the Old Granary, after he obtained a degree in jewellery at the Central School of Art in London, in 1975.

"I started off in the Old Granary making one-off commissions," said Mr Clayton, now 72.

"By the time we had four children, I realised that wouldn't bring in enough of an income to bring them up, so we went into retail. We opened a shop on the Saturday Market Place."

Tim and Sue Clayton, who are retiring next month (Image: © ARCHANT NORFOLK 2015)

Mr Clayton said tastes had changed over the course of the last half century or so.

"People have become more adventurous than they were in the mid-70s," he said.

He said that working with precious metals was still a labour of love.

"I wouldn't have stuck it out if it hadn't been," he said. "It was the first thing I attempted to do when I left school that I realised was specifically me."

Techniques he has used include melting down gold to pour into moulds made from cuttlefish bones to create items. In 1995, he was made a Freeman of the Goldsmiths Company, London.

The Baden Powell setting sail for the first time after she was restored in 2018 (Image: Archant 2018)

A|way from his workshop, Mr Clayton was one of the team which spent more than a decade restoring the Baden Powell, a historic wooden fishing boat, which now provides trips along the Ouse waterfront each summer.

He said he planned to continue to help out with the vessel after he retires, while his four grandchildren would also be keeping him busy.

The Claytons' final day of trading will be on Saturday, April 9. Until then, the shop has a closing down sale with 25pc off gold jewellery and bronze sculptures, and 40pc off selected watches, silver and giftware.