BULLDOZERS moved in at the weekend to bring an end to a city's 100-year love affair with its renowned brewery.

Almost 20 months after the Swallow Group closed its Vaux beer-making facility, with the loss of 440 jobs, buildings at the sprawling brewery site in Sunderland city centre are beginning to be demolished.

Most of the beer-making equipment has been sold off, but the derelict shell of the 105-year-old brewery has remained intact on the 14.7 acre site.

With talks between new owner Whitbread and a potential developer reaching an advanced stage, a wrecking crew has been brought into clear the site.

The first building to be knocked down is the Vaux bottling hall, built on the site of the former Avenue Theatre, one of Sunderland's Victorian music halls.

Former Vaux head brewer Jim Murray, who has remained on site with maintenance man Jim Lancaster to oversee the sale of equipment, said the bottling hall had to go first, because it was deemed dangerous.

"The roof needed to come off because it was getting a bit dodgy, as well as the first floor," he said.

"But, because the rest of the site hasn't been sold, it will be a little while before the rest of the buildings come down."

Mr Murray, from Wingate, County Durham, has spent his working life at Vaux, since leaving Hull University in the 1960s.

Despite his happy memories of the brewery, he has no qualms about the rest of the site being demolished.

"There's some nice plans for the development, which I can't say too much about at the moment. But all the buildings will be razed, there is no question about that.

"When the brewery closed there was talk that parts of its might be listed, but that is definitely not the case.

"I was here when the guy from English Heritage came around, and there would be nothing whatsoever of worth in preserving the buildings.

"I know its emotive for some people, but when there are 750 jobs created here in 18 months or so, people will not think twice."

Mr Murray said that in the interim he would continue to sell the remaining equipment, with recent deals including the plastic bottling line, which is going to a Ukraine brewery, and the beer tanks, which are to find a new home in Lithuania