When you announce that you will be retiring and selling your shop and you get 400 messages from customers, with some of them even coming in in tears, you know you have been doing something right. Julie Blackburn talks to Charles and Susan Jane Alexander whose jewellery business has been an institution in the island for four decades.

’We’ve been very lucky,’ says Susan Jane Alexander. ’How many people do 40 years and enjoy pretty much every day they’ve come to work? We’ve had really good fun.’

It’s fair to say that she and husband Charles and their team in the shop have also kept more secrets than they can remember over the years. They have often known in advance who is planning to propose to whom and similarly they have sometimes had to keep quiet when people they knew to be married came in to buy jewellery for someone they were having an affair with.

’We just never said a word,’ says SusanJane.

Charles began his business as a manufacturing jeweller at Tynwald Mills in 1978, making silver shells and pine cones, which were sold into the trade in the UK. It was not until the following year that he moved to doing jewellery repairs and began to expand the retail side of the business.

The shop moved to 41 Strand Street in 1982 and opened in its current location in 1995. Needless to say, there have been many changes during that time and many memories.

There was the couple who came into the shop having risked their lives escaping from Russia with an ’incredible’ collection of Faberge jewellery.

This was before the days of money laundering legislation and it was not unusual for people to come into the shop, from various parts of the world, and pay for jewellery with a suitcase full of cash.

While shop manager Jean Allcock, who has been with the business for 32 years, looked after the retail side with Susan Jane, Charles established himself in his workshop upstairs, carrying out valuations and repairs and making what were often spectacular one-off pieces for customers.

’He’s converted tiaras and done all sorts of lovely, interesting work and we’ve had loads of celebrities,’ says Susan Jane.

Charles especially remembers making a pendant in gold and diamonds in the shape of a Fender guitar for Status Quo lead guitarist Francis Rossi.

’We used to see him sometimes on the television wearing it,’ he recalls.

There are some amazing stories related to valuations he has carried out too. There was the man, recently widowed, who came in to sell his late wife’s jewellery, saying: ’I just want to get rid of it.’

Among the collection was a diamond that caught Charles’s professional eye, as Susan Jane recalls: ’ Charles looked at it and said to him: "Do you have any grandchildren?" and he said: "Yes I’ve got a granddaughter", and Charles said: "Well if I were you I’d put this diamond in the safe, leave it there, and keep it for when she’s 18 or 21".’

He came back in years later with the diamond when the granddaughter was about to turn 18 and asked Charles to value it again. It turned out to be worth £70,000.

Charles would also be asked to go to various banks to go through deed boxes for probate. One day he was brought one by someone who father had just died. He recalls: ’There were no keys and it had the most complex lock so I had to use one of my jewellery piercing tools.

’When I opened the lid there were seven ring boxes in there and the first one out contained a brilliant cut diamond over 10 carats. Of the seven boxes there was nothing under about 8.4 carats.

’There was also an old Golden Virginia tobacco tin that weighed an absolute ton - a couple of kilos - and I looked at it and said: "I think you’ll find this is gold".

’I packed it off to our bullion merchants who did core driliings to confirm it and they called me four or five days later and said: "Yes, it’s about 18.9 carats average - £87,000’s worth". It had been melted and poured into the tin.’

On the retail side the Charles Alexander sale, held every year in February or March, always attracted a queue of around 15 people, who would wait patiently outside the shop from six o’clock in the morning armed with thermos flasks.

As one of the few remaining independent shops in Douglas, it has become very much a part of the community, a place where people go for jewellery and gifts to mark all the various family events and milestones - like engagements.

It has become a tradition among the staff in the shop that, whenever someone comes in to buy an engagement ring, they always find out how they plan to propose.

Susan Jane says: ’We always ask because of the stories, to see if it’s one of the best.

’One person went to Florida with his girlfriend and took the ring and a card with him to meet the dolphins. When his girlfriend started stroking the dolphin, it had the card in its mouth and it said: "Will you marry me?".’

On one occasion she and Charles were on a flight to London when they bumped into an old friend. Susan Jane recalls: ’She said to me: "You’re not still working are you?" and I said: "Oh yes I wouldn’t miss it for the world, I so enjoy it. And you don’t know this but there are three people on this flight who all have our engagement rings in their pockets, all going for weekends in London and all going to propose!".’

’They all winked at us as we were going through security,’ adds Charles.

Since announcing the closure, Susan Jane says that she will treasure the many messages and good wishes people have sent.

We’ll leave the last word with one who wrote: ’Thank you to all of you for the wonderful times your jewellery and service has given us. I’ve always thought you were the best jewellery shop in the world.’

â?¢ The Charles Alexander closing down sale starts on Saturday at 10am.

’There were three people on our flight to London with our engagement rings in their pockets, all going to propose.’