Staff at Nuneaton's now closed Wilko store have issued a touching message to all their former customers. They posed together outside the store in Church Street for final mementos of their time as colleagues before the branch closed for good.

It has been almost a week since the store shut its doors for the last time on Tuesday, September 26 - ending the national firm's long association with the town. Staff members asked CoventryLive to share the images, as well as pass on a message to customers.

In it, they thanked them for their custom and admitted that they 'didn't think it would ever come to this'. The message read: "We would like to thank everyone for coming to Nuneaton Wilkos over years. We didn't think it would ever come to this.

"We would like to thank the customers for their care and all the team's efforts over the years. We also want to wish team and the customers luck and best wishes."

The team stood outside the Church Street based store before the lights were turned off and the door locked for the last time

The closure of Wilko marked the end of an era for the discount chain store, which originally occupied a unit in Stratford Street in the 1970s. Now the building stands an empty shell of its former self where generations once shopped.

It is destined to be bulldozed if plans for the new Justice Walk development, which includes a new library, places to live and offices, are given the go-ahead. The loss of Wilko also means another building in the town centre will stand empty as the firm was supposed to move into the old home of Woolworths on Queens Road.

Now Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council faces the task of finding a new tenant to move into the former Poundland and TJ Hughes building.

For the latest Nuneaton stories you can get them emailed to you by signing up here