TWENTY years ago, membership at the Royal Air Force Association's Darlington branch stood at an impressive 800.

However, as its members grew older and many died, that figure has now halved. Attendance at the club, which the branch owns in Duke Street has dwindled disastrously.

So much so, that on Wednesday night it closed its doors for the last time - 43 years after former servicemen and women of the town found their permanent home.

"Everybody feels a bit down, really," said 78-year-old Ena Davison, summing up the mood among those gathered, whose unity - brought about by a shared history serving their country - normally buoys the spirit.

Formed in 1946, the branch had been meeting in various pubs around the town, before temporarily settling in the Astoria buildings, in High Northgate, in 1951.

But, in 1958, it bought the Duke Street building, which is now not used enough for the branch to keep it going.

A larger than normal attendance of about 80 turned up for the last night. Among them, president and secretary Eric Roberts, whose sad job it was to break the news of the committee's decision in July.

Mr Roberts, a Darlington borough councillor, said: "There are more in tonight than normally on a Wednesday night, and that is what's been the problem.

"Twenty years ago, our takings were excellent. Now, by comparison, they are not even a third of that, and consequently we have to close."

However, the branch will continue its work of providing welfare for ex-service people and their dependents, and offers have already been made of places where the members can continue to meet, by the JUC Club and Mowden Park Rugby Club.

Any money raised from selling the club will go into the branch funds until the association decides to buy new premises.

The loss of the club has saddened members, as it was a place they could use any night, while other offers to meet up have been only for certain days of the week.

Mr Roberts said: "I am very sorry for the people who come here, few as they are. They are the ones who have supported it all through the years. It's those who don't support it who are causing the trouble."

Branch chairman Norman Athey summed up the mood. He said: "It's a very, very sad day for me, this. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I don't know."

Committee member Mark Aram, 48, believes one of the reasons for the falling membership has been that his generation of RAF servicemen did not have the shared experiences of the older group, which dominates the branch.

"They had a much harder time than we did, for a much shorter period of time," he said. "I think the modern services don't give the same support these people have when they have served through the war or National Service.