EMOTIONS were running high at a Trowbridge family firm this week as the doors closed on a century of trading.

F Sleightholme and Sons Ltd has survived countless peaks and troughs since opening as a cycle shop in 1904 successfully trading through two World Wars.

But the end of an era for the family-run garage and car showroom came on Wednesday, when the shutters were brought down for the very last time.

Widow Jean Sleightholme, who took over the business in 2000 with her son-in-law David, after the death of her husband Wilfred, said customers had been in tears at the closure.

"People have been telling me how they have always come here and they don't know where else to go," she said.

"I shall miss it. I shall miss the company and our staff who have always been so loyal.

"It has been distressing over the last couple of years when I realised we had to close, but I was determined to make a century of trading," she added.

Changes in the car industry and pressure from big-name dealerships were the catalysts behind the closure of what was one of the last surviving family firms in Wiltshire's county town. The family legacy began in 1904 when founder Frank Sleightholme opened his cycle shop in Mortimer Street, next to the Greyhound Inn.

Managing the business with his wife Henrietta, Frank became renowned for his achievements on the motorcycle track, winning a host of awards including the Bath Challenge Cup three times.

A few years later he took over Bodmins Garage on the corner of Mortimer Street and expanded the family firm with the help of his son Geoff.

When Frank died in 1927, aged 55, the business was taken over by his widow and eldest son, until the early 1930s when younger son Wilfred took over the reins at the age of 16.

The business boomed as the brothers' reputation for their racetrack achievements grew the family business rapidly becoming a magnet for the motorcycling community.

Both brothers were called-up during the Second World War. Geoff served with the Royal Air Force while Wilfred worked as an inspector at a Gloucestershire air school.

Mother Henrietta kept things ticking over despite the economic pressures crippling businesses in wartime Britain.

As soldiers returned from war the motorbike trade boomed as petrol rationing forced people to look for cheaper and more economical forms of transport.

Sleightholmes witnessed first-hand the hive of activity, with thousands of demobbed servicemen snapping-up ex-army bikes.

Wilfred returned to the firm and racetrack, earning the nickname King of Farleigh Castle.

Further success came on tracks in the Isle of Man, Blandford and Warminster and on grand prix circuits in Belgium, Sweden and Italy.

In 1963 Sleightholmes moved to its present location in Frome Road.

Bringing the enormously popular VW Beetle to Trowbridge in the late 1960s, the firm went from strength to strength and in 1972 took on a franchise with Datsun, now known as Nissan.

The union lasted for 24 years but dissolved in 1995 when Wilfred felt the pressure to expand was proving too much.

Taking on smaller franchises with Proton and Kia, Wilfred refused to retire despite approaching his 80s. He died in 2000, aged 84.

Every member of staff at the garage, filling station and showroom have new jobs to go to, easing the pain for the Sleightholme family.

Mrs Sleightholme said: "My husband loved the business and it was his life but sadly nothing lasts forever."