A little piece of beer-drinking history was made yesterday when a North-East village said goodbye to a famous name Marjorie MacIntyre reports

THE last remnants of the North-East's oldest brewery were sold lock, stock and barrel yesterday, in an auction which marked the final chapter of beer making in a County Durham village.

Giant mashtuns, grist mills, sugar hoppers and fermenting vessels were among the 600 lots to come under the hammer at the bitter-sweet sale at the Castle Eden Brewery.

Founded in 1826 by John Nimmo, the embryonic brewing business began in the present building, which was then a coaching post situated exactly midway between Sunderland and Stockton.

The brewing business flourished in tandem with the growth of the mining industry, providing thousands of pitmen with some of the finest ales in the country.

In its heyday, the family-run business had a workforce of more than 500, and adopted a paternalistic approach to its employees, providing them with recreational facilities, including tennis courts and membership of the village's golf and cricket clubs.

The Nimmo dynasty continued to run the thriving firm until 1963, when the business was bought by brewing company Whitbread.

Twenty-five years later, the operation was put up for sale, leaving 170 years of brewing heritage apparently set to drain away.

The plant failed to escape the death knell, but a rescue deal saved the famous Castle Eden Brewery and this week the new company, now based in Hartlepool, was toasting its takeover of the Camerons Lion Brewery.

Yesterday, in glorious sunshine, a handful of the "old team" stood sadly by to watch the auction which had attracted buyers from all over the country, including a Somerset cider producer.

Edwina McGarry, who joined the company in 1968, took a walk down memory lane with a last visit to the cellars and sampling rooms.

Clutching some old unwanted office papers from the past, she exchanged anecdotes with long-time work colleague Bob Johnson who started work at the brewery in 1965.

Mr Johnson, who will be moving to the new operation in Hartlepool, summed up their feelings: "It is terrible to see it all go. It is such a shame it all had to end like this."

But as the village plant closes, the famous beers live on - with Castle Eden Ale, Trophy Special and Nimmos XXXX already being produced at the new Hartlepool site.

The old building has been bought by the marketing and communications company Durham Associates, which plans to create a business centre and possibly a restaurant within its listed bricks and mortar.

The rest of the site is to be transformed into an exclusive housing development.