WHEN Dennis White’s love of old oil lamps and clocks began to take over his life, he faced the dilemma that confronts collectors when their collections begin to get out of hand – and his solution was to open a shop.

Now at the age of 65 and with the antiques trade in the doldrums, Mr White has reluctantly decided to close his Inglenook Antiques shop after being in business for nearly 40 years.

The shop in Ramsbury was originally a general stores run by his mother May and late father Jim.

Mr White, one of four brothers, got his love for collecting from his father, who amassed a huge collection of cars, motorcycles, trucks and military vehicles.

He grew up in Ramsbury, was born in a thatched cottage in Burdett Street and at three moved with his parents to the High Street shop, where he has run his antiques business since 1973.

As a boy he was fascinated with paraffin oil lamps.

He recalled: “I used to stay with my gran in Chisbury and all she had (in the days before electricity reached the hamlet) was an old lamp and I think it all started from there.

“We used to sit and have our tea around it as it was the only light she had in the cottage,” he said, adding that the lamp not only provided light but was also a useful source of heat.

Mr White said: “I used to see old oil lamps on dustbins so I would knock on the door and offer half a crown or something like that for them.

“I was a bit aimless in my teens and my father suggested I really ought to collect something so I started with oil lamps,” said Mr White, who helped in the family store until it closed when his father died.

Eventually he had so many stored away in his parents’ loft that at age 23 he moved them to a cobblers’ shop which closed in Oxford Street and for which he paid 12s 6d (57.5p) rent a week.

“It had a dirt floor and an inglenook fireplace, so when I decided to open my own business that was where I got the name from,” he said.

He began repairing and selling clocks as well as oil lamps after his father sold him his first long case clock.

Mr White said he had no regrets about his chosen career.

“I really enjoyed it and I met some very nice people,” he said.

Now, he said, he was planning to retire although he still intends to repair antique long case clocks.

Everything in his shop will be reduced in a closing down sale starting next Tuesday, November 15.