STAR readers are saying the closure of historic St Helens firm Ena Shaw is a "sad day" for the borough.

Yesterday we announced that Ena Shaw, a family business which was established in 1932 specialising in the manufacture and resale of soft furnishings, went into administration.

The company, which employed 167 members of staff, has a factory at Lea Green and a store on Duke Street, St Helens.

The decision to appoint administrators was made by the directors of Ena Shaw after suffering difficult trading conditions.

Despite the best efforts of the directors and administrators, the firm has stated that it was not possible to find a buyer for the business as a going concern.

Star readers have shared their sorrow of the news on social media.

Michaela Lowrey via Facebook said: "Such a sad day for many of us today and one we wont forget in a hurry.

"Was a great place to work and made such great friends there.

"Wishing everyone the very best of luck for the future and hope everything works out well for everybody."

Dawn Case added: "I cant believe its over! Gonna miss everybody like mad!

"Was a horrible and very sad day! Totally heartbroken."

Mark Richardson said: "We shopped there quite a bit. Thank you for the constant wonderful service. All the very best to you all for the future."

Sharon Watson Ne Pearson added: "Omg how awful and such a sad loss to the borough plus all the staff that have worked there so long."

Hilary Bradshaw said: "Great loss to the town, so sorry for the staff and I would imagine this is going to affect the staff at the factory too."

Nathan Topping added: "This is so sad. Great company with a great history. Shopped there many times. Big loss for the borough"

St Helens South and Whiston MP Marie Rimmer also shared her views on the closure, she said: "“As a personal supporter of Ena Shaw, I am very sad that it has come to this. It’s a huge shame for local economy, but most importantly for the workers that the decision to enter administration has been taken.

"The administrators have promised to work with staff at the Job Centre to get redundancy payments sorted, but this needs to be as quickly and smoothly as possible. I will be keeping an eye on things to make sure former employees get what they are owed.

“As a community we need to come together to support the workers that suddenly find themselves looking for a new job. I’ll be working with St Helens Council to do what we can to help.”