One of the oldest aquarium shops in the country is about to close because of a controversial road scheme. The Preston Aquarium was opened by Aubrey Ayton 55 years ago.

Here, his daughter Pamela Windo, who now lives in the United States recounts her memories of the shop and her sadness at its closure.

I was three years old when my father opened the Preston Aquarium in 1945.

He was a nature lover, an ornithologist and a fisherman. He kept several aquariums at home in which he bred tropical fish as a hobby.

When he saw that all his friends wanted to have aquariums and buy fish from him too, he took the decision that in a few short years made him "the leading aquarist of the South".

I watched the shop grow throughout my childhood from a simple tropical fish store to a small zoo, where animal lovers of all kinds could gather and gaze, get useful information and all the gear required for a variety of livestock and fish.

I loved going to the shop, located near Preston Circus, and spent hours there staring at the colourful tanks of Siamese fighters and neon tetras, black mollies, gouramis and angel fish.

The shop's bird roster included canaries, budgerigars, parrots, mynahs, lovebirds and finches of all kinds.

Animals of all sorts arrived and found homes: bushbabies; monkeys and marmosets; tortoises and turtles; even a stray dog and litters of kittens.

Sometimes they were too young or sick - or my sister and I simply wanted to have them to ourselves as pets - and they made their way to our home, especially on Sundays when the shop was closed, to be looked after by all of us.

We kept fledgling birds in our airing cupboard and fed them with warm milk. Goldfish were let loose in our garden ponds to get better and ailing birds flew in our aviary among the green bushes.

As the shop became more and more successful, with clients from all over Sussex, my father added more and more things.

Often, as many things were displayed outside as inside. For example, tanks of golden orfe and mottled shubunkin, flowering water lilies, ready made ponds, water fountains, ornaments, tree frogs and frogspawn, snails and newts. Eventually, at the back of the shop, he opened his famous fishing tackle department, which was his favourite sport.

Drawn by my father's well-known fishing prowess, many a fisherman came to browse and buy, hoping some of his know-how would rub off.

He was a member of the Sussex Piscatorial Society and knew the waters and fish of Sussex well.

Another line my father introduced quite early on was pond installation and maintenance.

Steve Ross, who worked with my father for more than a quarter-century, was the man in charge of ponds.

Sometimes my father would take us all to the country on a Sunday to visit a client with a pond, to give his opinion and estimate for cleaning and restocking.

Apart from my mother, Betty Ayton, who sadly passed away this year two years after my father's death, my sister, Joy, and her husband, David, helped manage the shop from 1958 to the present time.

For my sister, more than for me, because I've lived in the United States for the past 21 years, it is the end of an era.

She will open the shop to its last customer at the end of August after 55 years of business.

My own memories of the shop date back to its heyday, and to my youth in Brighton, and are tinged with nostalgia for those more tranquil times.