'It is very difficult for us': Family-run Halesowen clothes shop to shut after 144 years

Dancers in Peckingham Street, Halesowen, will close in mid-December, the family has announced.

Assistant manager Dave Dancer said he had hoped to take over the running of the business from his father Mike Dancer and aunt Janet Duerden. But he said tough retail conditions meant this would not be possible.

"We wanted to make sure it would be done on our own terms in an orderly fashion, so my aunt and my dad can retire properly," he said.

"It is very difficult for us, it is very sentimental. Some of our staff have been here for 27 years, so we wanted to make sure it was done properly, so that they would all be all right."

Mr Dancer, 37, said the company would continue to supply schoolwear over the internet for the foreseeable future.

The business has passed through five generations of the Dancer family, since it was founded as John Dancer's shoe and bootmaker in 1880, part of a row of shops in Lye High Street owned by the Dancer family.

Four years later, John and his wife Sarah moved to a lock-up shop in High Street, Halesowen, and business did so well that they were able to purchase a plot of land on the corner of Peckingham Street and Hagley Road, Halesowen, and build a three-storey shop on the site.