A SEASIDE town's oldest family business and shop is to change hands.

AA Sotheran's printers, stationers and book shop has been known to generations of shoppers in Redcar, east Cleveland, going back to 1890.

But, after 43 years as a printer and third generation owner, charity and community volunteer Peter Sotheran is retiring.

The shop, in Queen Street, will be sold to Teesside company InBiz and the factory will be transferred to two former employees in a management buy-out.

Father of four daughters Mr Sotheran, 59, had mixed emotions when he contemplated finally handing over the keys to the shop this weekend.

He said he had been looking to sell up for some time but was sorry the family tradition was coming to a close.

As he spoke he pointed out a framed copy of his grandfather Alfred Alexander Sotheran's apprenticeship indenture as a typesetter to a Mr Coverdale. The document said that AA Sotheran had to "serve his master and not play cards, dice or other unlawful games and not go to the tavern."

Eventually the young apprentice took over Coverdale's, which was situated in Redcar's old railway. The business moved to its present address in 1932 and began to expand rapidly under Alfred's son, Ken, in the 1950s and 1960s.

Peter Sotheran is chairman of the Sir William Turner's Almshouses, in Kirkleatham.