NOTHING ever stays the same even though there are a large number of people in Winchester who would wish it so.

Places change, institutions rise and fall, people come and go.

But it is always sad when long-established links are severed. And so it is with Danny Habel who has announced the ending of his ties with The Sleep Shop, on St George’s Street, the last part of the family business that has been in Winchester since 1945.

His parents came to England in 1939 fleeing Nazi Germany and settled in Winchester to set up a thriving furniture business.

In the beginning Danny’s father would deliver furniture from the back of a Norton motorcycle but at its peak it had two shops in Winchester, including a large one on Jewry Street that is now the Old Gaolhouse, and one in Andover. Thousands of people will have sat and slept on Habels goods.

Habels was one of the longest-lasting traders in Winchester and there are only a handful left; Jeremy France, Warrens and the Hampshire Chronicle spring to mind.

Towns and cities need people like the Habels, dynamic people with a vision, not frightened to launch something new even at the risk of failure. They had no fear of the future, no fear of change. A good example to us all.

So we thank him for his contribution to Winchester.