Final day for bearings factory

The company employed 4,000 workers at its height

Workers at an engineering firm that was once the biggest employer in Northampton start their final shifts on Friday.

British Timken announced in April 2001 that its roller bearing plant in Duston was no longer competitive, and would close with the loss of 900 jobs.

Thirty years ago the American-owned company employed 4,000 people at the site - but now, just a skeleton staff will remain until it shuts down at the end of the year.

The end of production at Timken comes on the same day that 172 workers are laid off from Northampton cosmetics firm Avon as part of its phased move to Poland.

Ms Dunkley: "Closure will affect the area a lot"

Former employee Michelle Dunkley, whose parents and husband also worked at Timken, told BBC Look East: "It's just a huge loss."

She and her family have together worked some 57 years at Timken, but have all had to find other jobs over the past year.

"You make a lot of friends there and they're all gone now.

"It's going to affect this area a lot."

The firm, whose bearings are mainly made for the automotive industry, celebrated its centenary in 1999 and gave every employee a commemorative medal.

Ms Dunkley's mother, Kath Mumford, said: "We none of us realised two years later we'd all be made redundant."

When it announced its plans for closure, the firm blamed high fixed costs, the slowdown in the global economy and the strength of the pound.

The announcement was part of a global restructuring operation aimed at saving $100m world-wide.

Northampton council now hopes the empty site will be bought by another light engineering firm.