As community shop closes after 115 years, we look back at fishing village as its residents choose to remember it

IT'S served the Newhaven community for the last 115 years but the end of an era is looming for Crolla's on Main Street.

Current owner Mark Crolla, 44, is selling up and moving out after 18 months battling with a new Asda in the area.

The day it closes will be a sad one for many in Newhaven. Crolla's has been a lynchpin of the ever-changing community since Mark's grandfather Ben Crolla founded it just yards from its current location in 1895.

Mark said: "My grandfather came over from Italy that year to settle in Newhaven, and he quickly became part of the community.

"He founded the store as a small ice cream parlour, and had an ice cream factory along the road.

"He established many of the practices we still hold to today, such as delivering to pensioners and ensuring nobody went without, particularly during the First World War when the community rallied together."

Ben eventually handed control to his son Tony, who manned the store until the Second World War.

Many Italians were being interred as enemies of the state and many more drowned on the torpedoed Arandora Star deportation boat, but Tony Crolla was fighting in the British Army.

Mark added: "My grandmother Theresa was still alive at that point so she managed the store.

"Newhaven hadn't changed much since they arrived in 1895 apart from a gradual development of houses.

"My dad returned after the war and they moved to a new store just down the road in the 1960s.

"Some of my earliest memories were in that store, looking at all the lovely old glass jars full of loose sweets, and the cafe was always buzzing with fishermen.

"Main Street was the focus of the village in those days, with all of the fish markets and our store in the middle of it all.

"We moved to the current store – our third – in 1975 and I took over when I turned 18.

"Newhaven has changed so much. We've gone from having three pubs and a couple of stores to having nothing, and Asda has been gradually chewing away at my profits.

"I've had pensioners here in tears over our closure because we've been together so long."