More than 200 workers have lost their jobs at Bradford wool mill which has gone into receivership.

And the future for the remaining 402 staff at W&J Whitehead in Laisterdyke is looking increasing bleak with only a matter of week's worth of work left on the firm's order books.

Staff learned of their fate yesterday after finishing their last shifts before the company's annual two week break.

Now only employees from the spinning department will return to the historic mill after the summer holiday.

A spokesman for the administrative receivers called in to manage the firm's liquidation, Tenon Recovery, said: "The business is still up for sale and there have been a number of interested parties visiting the site.

"We have reviewed the business's trading position and decided that production of the top making business will not re-open after the shutdown. It is within this area and other areas of the business that we have had to regrettably make redundancies.

"The worsted spinning side of the business will continue after the summer shutdown to complete existing customer orders."

The news comes only days after Bradford North Labour MP Terry Rooney and the Transport & General Workers Union met the receivers to try to work out a rescue package.

For father-of-three and spinner Zafer Hussain, 40, of Bradford Moor, the decision marks an end of an era.

Mr Hussain, who has worked in textiles for all of his working life and for Whitehead's for 14 years, said: "They've closed down everyone else and told us they can only guarantee two or three more weeks' work, so I'll be looking for a new job when I come back from holiday.

"I've worked in textiles for a long time and as each mill has closed I've moved on to the next. Now this one has gone I think the industry is finished in Bradford - there are no more mills any more and I will have to find some other type of work."

Most workers leaving the plant yesterday said they had seen the job cuts coming for months, as the topmakers and worsted spinners business struggled to win orders.

But Brian Cresswell, 63, of Manningham, said that did not make hearing the news any easier.

"We all saw it coming but it was only when we heard the actual words that the real shock set in," he said.

"I'm 63 and I've worked in the textile industry since 1953, so this might be the last time I work.

"It's getting to the end of the road in Bradford now, and it's the younger ones I feel sorry for - the future is bleaker for them."

Woolcomber Ramlal Bhatoye, 47, of Bradford, said he was told yesterday that he was being made redundant by his production manager.

He said: "That's it, they've told us not to go back after the holidays. That's my last shift. I don't know what I'm going to do now. Everyone is totally devastated. We knew it was bad when they called in the receivers but we thought there would be something they could do."

"We've been treated terribly. They've never told us what's going on and they left us completely in the dark.

"I've worked all my life in textiles and now there are no jobs left. Now I've been told I've got to apply for my redundancy money.

Tenon Recovery has said there is no chance of the company continuing as it is, and is actively looking for buyers.

About 30 firms have made inquiries so far, but only three have visited the site, and just one of those has expressed an interest in keeping it on as a textile business.

Mr Rooney said that questions need to be asked about the firm's collapse.

"Unless somebody buys it, it's finished, it's not trading," he said.

"We've lost 70,000 jobs in the textile industry in West Yorkshire, nobody's surprised about these losses which is sad in itself.

"I think there's serious questions that need to be asked about what's been going on at this company.

"At the beginning of the year it had a full order book and six months later it is in receivership.

"The company itself is being silent and releasing no information at all.

"It is trotting out the old excuses about the strength of the pound but since Christmas there's been no strength in the 'strength of the pound and the strength of the dollar' argument.

"There's been a ten per cent devaluation against the dollar since Christmas, but British firms that are trading with the US are saying there's been no drop off in trade so their argument does not stack up."