A SOLICITOR’S practice that’s been in business since the 1930s will close on New Year’s Eve with the loss of nearly 15 jobs.

Christopher White, who runs Milne and Lyall in West Street, said he was saddened by its inevitable closure but at 73 and with a sick wife, the time had come to retire.

Mr White, who started working for Mr Lyall in 1972, said: “I have to go sometime.

“We are just going to have to close, it is a great shame but there is absolutely no choice.

“At the height of the property boom about four years ago we had about 30 people here.

“Now we are down to less than half that. Some have found other jobs, some haven’t. They are very much like my family and I am very sad.”

He said one of the reasons for closing rather than selling was the enormous insurance liability, due in part to the amount of investment conveyancing done in the past and the insurance connected with that.

“Four years ago we had one of the biggest investment conveyancing businesses in the country and the insurance premium is based on that and it’s almost unmanageable.

“A lot of lenders, include the sub prime ones, funded this boom and the buy to let market.

“If there was a repossession because people can’t pay, lenders first look at who valued it and see if they can sue them, then they look around to see if there is anyone else they can sue.”

Mr White became a solicitor after being made redundant from his job as marketing manager of Monsanto textiles in London.

Despite having a wife and two children to support he studied and passed the exams with distinction in record time by taking them all in one go. He took over from Mr Lyall when he retired 35 years ago.

He never met David Milne who suffered from polio and went to live in Switzerland when war broke out and later died there.

Before Mr Lyall retired the business was a small general practice covering conveyancing, probate and wills but no criminal work as Mr Lyall was clerk to the Bridport justices.

When he left the first thing Mr White did was develop a criminal practice.

He was chairman of the duty solicitors scheme when it came in about 25 years ago until the magistrates court closed.

Mr White said: “That’s been my greatest love. I related very much to the people I was acting for because I’d been through the mill myself. I was in the army for National Service and I knew what it was like to be messed about.

He is most proud of his pro bono jobs as secretary of the Bridport Housing Association when they built Chardsmead Court – one of the first shared equity developments for elderly people in the country.

He was also secretary and founder of Bridport and West Dorset Sports Trust which became the leisure centre As its lawyer he got the trust charitable status – the very first sports body to do so.

He was also hired to stop the development of Downe Hall in the 1990s – a case that went as far as House of Lords which in the end changed the law about developers.

As well as looking after his wife Anne Mr White plans to carry on enjoying being chairman of Beaminster Singers and on committee of Parnham Voices.