One of the best known names in Woodbridge and Wickham Market - Bob Hasnip - has died at the age of 85.

East Anglian Daily Times: Bob Hasnip tinkers wuth a bicycle at Hasnips in Woodbridge Picture: KEVIN HASNIPBob Hasnip tinkers wuth a bicycle at Hasnips in Woodbridge Picture: KEVIN HASNIP (Image: Archant)

The Hasnips family and their bicycle repair and video rental shops have been part of the two towns for generations having set up their first stores in the 1950s.

He died at St Elizabeth Hospice on October 4 of pneumonia following a short illness.

Mr Hasnip’s son Kevin described his father’s death as an ‘end of an era’.

“I am gobsmacked by the number of messages we have received in support,” he said.

“He would be amazed at how many people had such high regard for him.

“People were telling me they bought their first bike from him - and they are now in their 50s or 60s.

“It is very sad he has passed away.

“It is an end of an era really - he seems to have been a part of the town high streets forever.”

Mr Hasnip was born in Alford in Lincolnshire on April 17, 1933.

He moved to Suffolk during the war when he was seven years old, growing up in Botesdale and later Yoxford.

He moved to Nottingham for a few years while doing his national service, later moving back home to Suffolk

Kevin said: “My uncle already had a shop in the thoroughfare in Woodbridge in the early 1950s and my dad worked there for about ten years.

“So there’s been a Hasnips in Woodbridge for decades.

“The thoroughfare shop was a bike shop and general store.

“You could buy your bike stuff there but also things like batteries.

“He then went off to Wickham Market in 1968.

“He has stayed there ever since.”

The shop in Woodbridge, on Church Street, opened in 1990 as a video and bicycle shop but later moved into renting DVDs.

Kevin said: “Everybody loved my dad. He was just really nice to everyone, all of the time.

“He never changed, he was always just a nice guy. He was genuinely a really great bloke.

“My father was a really decent man and everybody had time for him.”

Bob Hasnip had two sons - Paul, who passed away in May 2016, and Kevin.

He had three grandchildren.