TIME was called for the end of an era for brewing at the Blackburn Whitbread depot in 1978.

The last tanker was loaded with thousands of foaming pints of Mackeson, left the High Street depot bound for Samlesbury which brought to an end of two centuries of brewing on the site.

Even though, last orders were not called at the brewery at the end of October, when all the brewing operations were transferred to the £27m plant at Samlesbury.

When the last tanker was loaded, assistant brewer Jack Kenyon said that the workers felt 'a bit sad about it' and how it was the end of a long tradition there.

There had been a brewery on the site since 1799 when Dutton's was founded.

In 1964, it had been taken over by Whitbread West Pennine Group.

A Whitbread spokesman said that they had 'bent over backwards to find jobs for employees' and some of the workers had been there for a number of years and 'we are sorry to leave.'

The swing from beer to lager was being blamed as one of the reasons for the closure.

It also said that in the years leading up to the closure that between 30 and 50 tankers left the depot each week.

n Do you have any memories of working on the site? Email robert.kelly@nqnw.co.uk your thoughts and recollections.