Twenty nine years ago Paul Plumb became famous for ringing in the old as Britain's currency went decimal.

In 1971 the gentlemen's outfitters' till still chimed to the sound of pounds, shillings and pence, as all around him traders were beginning to count everything in multiples of ten.

To this day Paul, 75, from Shoreham, is adamant the change, supposed to simplify trading and bring the country in line with Europe, was for the worse.

And to prove his campaigning zeal is not dead, he's going to appear on a TV documentary promoting the old currency.

He said: "It's all about preserving a way of life. Why should someone in Brussels tell me how I should live?"

Like everyone else Paul, who ran Paul Plumb Gentleman's Outfitters in Shoreham for 40 years, accepted the change to decimal currency in 1971.

But one day a shop assistant asked him a question he could not answer. A lifelong dislike of all things decimal was born.

Paul, of Mill Hill Gardens, Shoreham, said: "She asked how to re-price three dozen tweed caps costing four shillings and eleven pence from the old money into the new decimalised stuff.

"I didn't have a clue.

"I decided there and then I didn't want to stay decimal. At that moment I was called by a radio station about something completely different. I told them about the decimal stuff and repeated it on-air."

Paul reverted his pricing to pre-decimal and became an instant celebrity, featuring in every national newspaper.

He said: "I was absolutely inundated with people wanting to ask me questions." Paul saw his action as a defence of the rights of the middle-aged and elderly.

"There were elderly people coming into the shop, handing over a few coins and asking me to take the value of whatever they were buying.

"That wasn't fair trading because people didn't know how much they were spending. Decimalisation was a way of putting up prices. With it the value of a new penny was two-and-a-half times the old, but the prices of things didn't drop accordingly.

"People weren't told about the change in a way they understood easily and that wasn't fair or right."

Paul kept up his protest until all pre-decimal currency was phased out after a couple of years.

He is featured on a Channel 4 Secret History programme on the problems of the change.

In it he and partner Margaret Parker walk round the streets of his beloved Shoreham working out relative prices in 1971 and today.

"It's amazing how much things have gone up in that time. Goodness knows what's going to happen when they make kilograms and centimetres the only measurements we can use instead of pounds and inches."

Secret History is on Channel 4 tomorrow at 9pm.