Helen Miller joins protestors as they take their fight to save the doomed Blue Circle cement works, in Weardale, to the doorstep of its French owner

IT was a very British protest. The ranks of bemused French riot police looked on as the protestors took tea and cakes on the steps of the Lafarge headquarters.

It was hardly the sort of thing Paris - international symbol of revolution and street protest - is used to.

But then again, Paris isn't exactly used to the good folk of Weardale, in County Durham.

A delegation of 30 residents took their defiant message to France this week in a last-gasp mission to persuade Lafarge to think again about the closure of the Blue Circle cement works in Eastgate.

They left Stanhope, on the banks of the Wear, at midnight on Tuesday, arriving in the cosmopolitan splendour on the banks of the Seine 12 hours later - a delegation from a tiny community determined to picket the world's largest cement maker on its own doorstep.

To reinforce the community's feelings, they brought with them a bag of cement from the Eastgate factory to be dumped outside the French company's Paris headquarters.

For Weardale businessman Angus Ward, from Ward Brothers Plant Hire, this was a desperate attempt to get Lafarge bosses to talk with him about a proposed rescue package that he and members of a syndicate had come up with.

He said: "So far, they have refused to talk to us. We would like to sit around the table and discuss what can be done.

"The plant is capable of making cement for at least 25 years into the future, possibly longer. I just feel if we can get to head office, they will take it on board that we will have gone to great lengths to get there and give us a chance."

Durham County Councillor John Shuttleworth has been at the forefront of the campaign to save Blue Circle since its closure was announced in January, with the loss of 147 jobs.

"We have to do this. They aren't prepared to come and talk to us, so we've had to go to them," he said.

Janet Brown, 28, works in the despatch office at Blue Circle and had taken time off work to go on the trip.

She and partner Melvin Lonsdale, 33, have a three-year-old son and say they are now concerned about what the future holds for him.

Miss Brown said: "We are fortunate to live in a beautiful area. We don't want to move. Hopefully, we will manage - we'll have to wait and see."

Alice Emerson, the eldest person on the bus, said: "Dales people are very, very proud and hard working, and they are taking the bread out if their mouths. There'll be nothing left for the kids."

Lafarge chairman and chief executive Bertrand Collomb was unable to meet the delegate, but executive vice-president of the cement division, Isidoro Miranda, senior vice-president of human resources Philippe Jacquesson, and Richard Olsen, from Larfarge UK, cleared their diary to meet Mr Ward and Mr Shuttleworth.

In contrast with the rural community of Weardale, Larfarge's Paris office is in the most expensive area of the city, just down from the Champs Elysee and a moment's walk from the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph.

And, as their leaders discussed their future inside the glistening headquarters, the rest of the community laid down their banners and sat on the steps for refreshments.

An hour later, Mr Ward and Coun Shuttleworth emerged without any concrete offer from the company.

They returned to Weardale - 28 hours after they set off - convinced the mission was worthwhile and vowing to fight on to the very last.

And, if nothing else, they demonstrated that Dunkirk Spirit for which the English are known across Europe.