A barber shop duo are hanging up their scissors after 27 years at the helm of a village salon.

Bill and Ann Potter have been cutting hair in Coggeshall since 1991.

The couple began with a store in Church Street before moving their Demon Barber shop in Bridge Street 18 months later.

The pair will be retiring after deciding to call it a day when employee Bok, who has worked at the salon for nine years, decided to move back home to Thailand.

Mr Potter, 67, said: “It has been absolutely fantastic and I have met some really interesting people. Coggeshall has been very good to us.”

Mr Potter left school at 16 and started an art course in Colchester before realising it wasn’t for him.

He began work at a barbers shop in Manor Street, Braintree, where he met Ann, 65, as her uncle ran the shop.

He then went on to work in High Street before opening his own shop in Coggeshall 27 years ago.

During that time he trained up barber Craig Hearne who worked at the shop for 12 years. 

The couple have also spent 30 years raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital after their son Josh died of leukaemia, aged eight.

Over the years, Mr and Mrs Potter have collected donations at the barbers and from quiz evenings, golf days and sales, in aid of leukaemia research at the hospital.

They have raised thousands of pounds in their son’s memory.

Mr Potter added: “Josh started raising funds before he died and it was a way of keeping his name alive.”

The couple will now spend their retirement enjoying a well earned rest and spending time with their grandchildren.

Mr Potter said: “It has been lots of fun and I have lots of good memories.

“The beauty of a barbers is you don’t know who is going to come through the door but the people who do, come because they want to.

“I have met lots and lots of people and I want to thank everyone who helped to fundraise for us and who supported the barbers.”

The barbers closed at the beginning of February.