It has been open all hours for almost 70 years, but for the Homewood family the time has finally come to shut up shop.

The family kept their convenience store and newsagents running through the Second World War and, more recently, the onslaught of competition from supermarkets.

But after a family conference, it was decided the till would ring for the last time on June 8.

Homewood Stores in Elm Grove, Brighton, has been a family-owned shop for generations but it was Ted Homewood who bought the store in 1935, turning it into a grocery store and newsagents.

Mr Homewood was born in Brighton and worked for the town's Maypole Dairy Company as a shop manager.

He took on the store with his wife Violet and named it Homewood General Stores.

The couple had just started a family and, with daughter Grace, they lived in the flat above the shop.

In 1939 Ted Homewood junior was born in the flat and to this day he stands behind the counter which his father and other family members worked behind.

Ted, 63, has worked in the shop for 48 years, joining his father's business after completing his national service when he left Varndean School in Brighton.

He said: "My father always wanted his own shop. He was quite ambitious but my mother wasn't allowed to work in the shop.

"It wasn't really the done thing then and dad wanted his meal on the table for 1pm."

It was Ted Homewood senior who began selling newspapers from the store. Mr Homewood junior had many memories of life in the shop as a child.

He said: "During the war my father stayed at the shop but I was only just born then. I remember him counting the rationing coupons on a Sunday.

"I also remember my dad getting boxes of 100 cigarettes and he would sell them singly to the workmen who couldn't afford to buy a packet and he would light a match for them."

There were strict laws governing opening hours of such shops and Mr Homewood senior would open from 6am to 6pm in the week but close for an hour-long lunch.

On Sundays he would open from 7am to 10am and Wednesdays was half-day although he would open at 4pm to sell The Argus.

Mr Homewood said: "Covers would be put over the groceries because we weren't allowed to sell them and we had to put notices up. That's all gone by the wayside now. We work more hours now than my father ever did but that's progress."

During the war Mr Homewood junior's aunts Connie and Aggie and his sister Grace worked in the shop to help out. His uncle Bert, who is now 80 and living in Ely, Cambridgeshire, also joined the ranks.

Mr Homewood junior has been working in the shop with his cousin John Homewood, who has worked there for 43 years and another cousin's husband, Ian Rolf.

Homewood General Stores changed its name to Homewood Stores and moved into the era of convenience stores, staying open for as many hours as possible.

Mr Homewood said: "I'm not really sad at the moment but I think my father thought the family would always carry it on."