WORKERS in St Annes took a break from work to gaze at the heavens on Wednesday (August 11) but were rapidly brought back down to earth as their expectations of the eclipse were shattered.

Office workers from Focal Point in St Annes were disappointed with what they described as "a non-event".

A disgruntled James O'Dowd spent all morning looking for eclipse glasses but ended up having to make a card with a hole as recommended on the TV.

He said: "The card thing was useless - you couldn't see a thing. Everywhere had sold out of glasses so I spent all morning glancing at the sun then looking down again."

Meanwhile, artwork co-ordinator Nicola Thompson said: "I thought it was all right but I don't think the safety aspect was stressed enough.

"For us here in St Annes it wasn't that impressive but we came in and watched it on the telly and it looked good in France where it went pitch black." Vin Cassidy of Eden felt the event was too hyped up and thought it would have gone a lot darker. "I watched it at Starr Gate and someone said the Tower would be lit up but I couldn't see it."

He added: "We couldn't get any glasses because everywhere in St Annes had sold out so someone told me to use negatives from a film."

Some were so disinterested they didn't even bother to stop work such as Janet Pearson, from Orchard Mews Market. "It went dark but not as dark as I expected. It was just as if it was going to rain.

"I looked at my watch and it was about 11.15am so I thought it was probably the eclipse but it was nothing special."

Irene Tucker, manager of photo shop Max Spielmann also stayed indoors, saying: "I wasn't interested at all. I enjoyed the firework display in Paris after the three tenors concert. It was nothing compared to that.

"It got very cold though didn't it? These things are hyped up so much they end up being a bit of a non-event."

Colleague Beryl Connley, who did pop out of the shop to watch, agreed: " To be honest it was a bit of an anti-climax."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.