Myke Beckhurst is retiring from the Glass Studio on Eastbourne pier in East Sussex

The Glass Studio was established in 1968.

Transcript

00:00Well, we've been on the pier for 56 years. We came on in 1968 and we've stayed ever since.

00:11It's been quite a joy for us and quite an experience really over the years. We've met

00:18a lot of people and we've had a lot of fun and we've had a lot of interest and we're

00:23very grateful that people appreciate what we do. Overall, we've been very successful

00:32and it's rather sad that there's nobody to take over and we have to make a decision to

00:39draw a line eventually. None of us are getting any younger, I'm afraid.

00:45Well, one of the highlights when the old Duke of Edinburgh came on to open the Sovereign

00:52Lightship in the 70s and the then pier manager said, oh, we'll make you something when you

01:00come back and we made him a polo player on horseback and he was very grateful. He said,

01:06I hope you have a good season and one of his equestrians took it away. So we don't know

01:12what happened to that but we've also seen lots of celebrities over the years, Danny

01:19LaRue and we made a mini piano for Danny LaRue and we've seen lots and lots of different

01:25people over the years. Tennis stars who used to come on when it was a Pilkington's festival

01:31for the tennis and Arthur Lowe and Tommy Steele, Norman Wisdom.

01:41Well during the last fire we had, of course, we couldn't allow them to come on the pier

01:47so they set up a little pop-up shop for us on the front but of course we couldn't make

01:52but we could actually sell our models so we ran out that year because we couldn't actually

01:58make them off the pier but we could sell and that went on for about six months, I think.

02:03It was quite a long period that time, that fire. And the other fire we had was when the

02:09Blue Room, the theatre went up on fire which was set on deliberately, we understand, but

02:18that was the end of the pier show, as we know, it was Sandy Powell and the end of the pier

02:26show which was, end of pier shows are very famous. What am I going to do? I get asked

02:31that a lot and I don't really, I've got a lot of jobs obviously, jobs that need doing

02:37at home that haven't been done over the years but as long as I've got a good book and a good

02:42bottle of wine I think I'll be all right. And don't forget that glass blowers never retire,

02:48they just melt away.