THE men of Darlington knew what was coming: they saw the writing on the railway engine, and arranged mass SOS protest marches – "save our shops".

Sadly, it did little good. On September 19, 1962, the Beeching axe swung, and the closure of the North Road Shops was announced, throwing 2,000 men out of work immediately.

Still the protests went on, but to no avail, and the final day at the works was Friday, April 1, 1966.

These pictures from The Northern Echo archive show the extraordinary scale of the protests – remember High Row in the early 1960s was part of the A1, the Great North Road between London and Edinburgh, so even though there were thousands of protestors, the traffic still had to squeeze through.

If you have any information to add to any of today's pictures, or if you spot a familiar face, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk