Mr Gillings, who was hired as a stockroom boy on £6 a week in 1966, was asked to remove the remaining fixtures and fittings at the closed branch.

"It felt sad doing it," he said. "I had a look round the back where we all used to hang out.

"It's a shame."

Looking at the plastic Woolworths sign on the front of the shop reminded him of how different the chain used to be.

"Inside it was all brown wood and gas lamps – very Dickensian," he said.

"The Woolworths sign used to have gold leaf in it because they thought it would last longer.

"I remember them doing that – it was all laid out in the staff room."

Mr Gillings added he used to have a fire outside the back of the shop to burn empty boxes.

"Can you imagine that now?," he said.

To further his income, Mr Gillings said he used to buy things from Gazes Auction Rooms and sell them on to the girls in the staff room at Woolworths.

"One day the manager, Mr Pollard, caught me and summoned me to his office where he told me two things," he said.

"One – I was not allowed to sell merchandise on the premises and there is a world of difference between a businessman and a man in business and two – leave the Saturday girls alone."

Mr Gillings added: "I gave up being a man in business to become an entrepreneur and I gave up the Saturday girls – for one Saturday!"

Another familiar face returned to the Diss store before it closed.

Lynda Armstrong, a former manager at the shop, worked there for 23 years before leaving due to ill health in 2006.

"I have got a lot of happy memories from my time at Woolworths," she said.

"We won a competition for the best customer care in the whole company and all went on a trip to London.

"We had a really nice day and were thrilled we had won – it was a real achievement for little old Diss."

Mrs Armstrong said a fond farewell to the shop and some of her former colleagues.

"It's sad for Diss – I think the town will just become a ghost town now," she said.

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