OLD Town will be a poorer place without Workman's, one of Swindon's last, good old-fashioned corner shops.

With the big supermarkets weighing in to town the playing field is decidedly uneven for little shops to compete.

It will be a sad day when the shop ceases trading after 57 years on April 27.

Since the dying days of World War Two, people have gone there to pick up their bits and pieces but, more importantly, bump into their friends and have a chinwag.

Hope remains, however, in the possibility that Jeff Workman can pass on the secret recipe for Workman's ham prepared on the premises for decades for someone to continue.