Dereham's Peacocks store has closed with the loss of 12 jobs.

More than 80 jobs and five shops in Norfolk and North Suffolk after the fashion chain was sold to Edinburgh Woollen Mill last week.

Branches in the Castle Mall shopping centre and the Riverside retail park in Norwich are to close alongside stores in Great Yarmouth and Bury St Edmunds, with the loss of 82 jobs in total.

The Dereham store, in Wright's Walk, shut with immediate effect and a notice simply saying the store was closed was displayed on the door on Thursday.

But another 80 jobs have been saved as a result of the sale with the new owners pledging to keep shops in Lowestoft, Gorleston, Thetford, Downham Market, Wisbech and King's Lynn open.

Peacocks collapsed under a debt mountain last month in the biggest retail failure since Woolworths, placing 7,500 jobs in jeopardy.

Edinburgh, which beat off Indian textile and clothing giant S Kumars Nationwide, said it would attempt to save some of the stores and jobs being lost.

However, chief executive Philip Day added: 'As you can imagine, there will be a considerable amount of work to undertake over the next few months to stabilise the situation, turn this business around, get the supply chain moving again and excite the customers with great products.'

Bonmarch�, which was part of the Peacock Group, was sold last month, leading to 1,400 job losses.