It will see to many that the death of Croxley Sports Shop owner and Croxley Green parish councillor Cliff Vassiliou is the end of an era - and they would be right.

Many of us grew up at a time when you would go to a shop like Cliff's whenever you needed new PE kit, football boots, a netball top or something for the new season.

These were the days when instead of reading endless online reviews, comparing prices on several websites and worrying about free delivery, you would simply go in and trust that the person you spoke to knew their stock and would have the thing you needed.

Read more: Croxley Sports Shop owner overjoyed by community support

Even before the internet, businesses like Cliff's were under pressure from the big chains, who could usually sell you something for less, even if the customer service wasn't as good.

As well as being a fixture in the business community, Cliff was also a voice on Croxley Green Parish Council.

If all this sounds a little cosy, many will remember that he could be a hard-nosed operator and that politics, like business, depends on building up expertise, integrity and trust.

Times have been hard for anyone running an old-fashioned shop. The aftermath of lockdown had been so savage that Cliff had no customers in three weeks in April.

But with the help of that same business community he had been a cornerstone part of for years, Cliff had staged a fightback, winning support from the likes of Luther Blissett and Stephen Fry on Instagram.

He will not live to see it, but he showed that even on the internet there is still room for the values that always made small shops valuable to their communities and to us all.