THERE is no date on this photograph, but we are guessing here it must have been taken sometime in the 1970s or 80s because the emporium of Horace Perks, purveyor of pet and garden supplies, is in full swing.

Horace was one of the most amiable and friendly characters in the St John's area of Worcester, where his little shop stood on the corner of Bransford Road for nearly 60 years and was so small it spilled out on to the pavement.

He came from a shop keeping family – his father ran seven in Birmingham – and the St John's business actually began life on the other side of the road, moving to its better known site in 1937, where it remained until Horace finally closed the shop and sold it at the end of the 1990s.

Sadly he died in 2004.