DURHAM'S organisation for pub landlords has called time on itself after more than a century.

The Durham and District Licensed Victuallers Association was formed in 1889 and modernised its name to include the word traders instead of victuallers in the early 1990s.

But the changes that have swept through the pub industry in the last decade or so have left the organisation out on a limb.

It was set up for publicans who were self-employed tenants of a brewery but few remain as the city's pubs have largely been taken over by national chains that employ managers to run them.

Last night, the association held its last past chairman's dinner in Dunelm Club.

Association chairman for the past four years, Keith Draper, landlord of the Half Moon, said: "It is very sad for me because I have been a staunch member and given a lot of time to the association. It is the end of an era.

"Changes within the licensed trade have been so vast that there is no longer the support or enthusiasm.

"It is really an organisation for self-employed people and people in one-off pubs. Pubs are now owned by multiple retailers.

"We have very few members, just the stalwarts, the ten or so surviving past chairmen.''

Mr Draper, who was chairman of the LVA in 1987 and 1988, said he hoped to find a home in the city for the association's chain of office and official regalia, which the association has had since 1954.

As well as being the organisation that represented licensees interests, the association provided a social outlet for them and raised money for charity.

Its ladies auxiliary, which concentrated on fundraising will continue, having expanded its membership to people outside the trade interested in charity work.