Beattie daughter's name grief

The daughter of James Beattie has broken her silence over the planned name change of her family's famous department store.

Vicky Redshaw said of the demise of the Beatties chain: "It has been like watching a beloved friend slowly die, and we are all grieving."

Mrs Redshaw, from Bridgnorth, said the last couple of years had been "utterly heartbreaking" for her and all those who loved the store.

And she revealed she had written to the firm's new boss, head of Icelandic retailer Baugur, Jon Aesgir Johannesson, urging him to reconsider.

Mrs Redshaw, who has stayed away from the media spotlight, spoke to the Express & Star as the campaign to keep the historic name gathers momentum.

She said was overwhelmed by the support from shoppers and former workers who have joined the campaign to keep the Beattie name above the door.

Mrs Redshaw said: "I think that this glorious outcry about the name itself now being removed is an expression of the feelings that so many of us had been experiencing ever since we knew that the company was to be taken over.

"It has been like watching a beloved friend slowly die and we are all grieving. A letter has been sent to Mr Johannesson asking him to reconsider and enclosing cuttings from the Express & Star but if in the end the name does have to come down, then let it be with ceremony and dignity.

"I don't think that that would be altogether a bad thing, as former manager Geoff Loundes said, the company has not really been "itself" for many years, perhaps since the time when there was no longer a member of the family directly involved."

Mrs Redshaw's father was the much-loved controller of the family empire for many years.

She said that the James Beattie Charitable Trust, a fund set up by her father after his death aged 73 in 1988, would go on giving money to the people of Wolverhampton.

By Becky Sharpe