WORKERS at an East Lancashire wallpaper firm were hit by a closure bombshell which meant the loss of 87 jobs.

The shock decision to close down all printed wallcoverings production at the South End Mill plant of William Morris Wallcoverings, Darwen, was broken in a Telex message from the company's headquarters.

The news came as a bitter blow to workers who last week agreed to a package involving 33 redundancies.

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