A SHOPKEEPER has thanked his customers for their loyal service after being forced to close a family store which has been trading for more than 110 years.

Jacksons, of Eldon Lane, near Bishop Auckland, was opened as a hardware store in 1890 by Thomas Jackson. It has passed down through successive generations.

The company also operated a haulage business using horses, but that had to stop during the First World War when the animals were needed for the war effort.

Jacksons expanded greatly after that, moving into the former horse yard next door and prided itself on selling everything in the non-food range "from A to Z". There was a further expansion with the opening of a shop in Shildon, but the Ministry of Defence took the premises over during the Second World War and it was unfit to use when it was handed back.

Jacksons opened another shop, in Spencer Street, Eldon Lane, in the 1950s.

Current owner Bob Jackson, great-grandson of the founder, said: "From there we went into the bigger stuff - washing machines, furniture, fireplaces, kitchen units and everything that you could mention that was non-food."

Another shop was opened in Coundon, but Mr Jackson can trace the decline of the business back to the 1960s when the infamous category D policy was introduced.

The directive put a block on development in villages around Bishop Auckland, many families were rehoused and the village populations dropped.

Although the policy was abandoned, Mr Jackson says the villages have never recovered.

The Spencer Street shop was closed and, despite hanging on for as long as he could, the Eldon Lane shop finally had to go in June this year.

Still soldiering on in the Coundon store, Mr Jackson said: "We've had so many customers and friend I would like to express my sincere thanks to."