It was not possible to confirm whether the historic Derbyshire-based building contractor has formally appointed administrators yet as it was not answering calls to its main telephone line.

But yesterday several staff started declaring themselves on the jobs market for hire.

One Wildgoose employee said: “On Monday afternoon, I was informed that Wildgoose was to cease trading.”

Another, who was a former employee, said: “Sad day for all at the Goose and the staff, sorry to here they have gone after 100+ years.

“Some good memories from my 24 years with them.”

Wildgoose Construction was founded in Matlock in 1896 by the great-grandfather of the current chairman Jonathan Wildgoose.

The £50m revenue business employed around 100 staff according to last published accounts for the year September 2020 but this is understood to have dropped to around 60 more recently.

The accounts revealed Wildgoose had run up a second-year of losses of around £2m after being hit by the double whammy of the failure of an M&E specialist and then its replacement on a care home job.

This came on top of restricted trading in the pandemic.

At the time. the firm said it was being supported with a Covid Business Interruption Loan of £1.5m, which was drawn down after the year-end in October to further supplement its bank balance and cash needs.