The fallen giant of the UK's high street has announced it is to shut four stores in the West following one of its worst Christmas performances in living memory.

The announcement that Marks and Spencer is to close stores in Bristol's Harbourside district, Trowbridge, Marbolrough and Tewkesbury will come as a massive blow for the towns and communities involved.

The news came as more than 3,000 jobs were lost or threatened with the axe nationally, as the credit crunch continued to hack away at British industry.

As well as 1,200 job cuts and 27 store closures at Marks & Spencer across Britain, 1,000 jobs are threatened at consumer lender Cattles, 400 at banking giant Barclays and 450 under threat after women's clothing firm Viyella called in administrators.

The firm dates back to 1784, and its 100 stores with 450 jobs are now under threat.

Unions expressed shock at the scale of jobs being lost just 24 hours after the final Woolworths stores closed, confirming the loss of 27,000 full and part-time jobs.

In the West Country just under 100 M&S staff will join the thousands in the retail sector who have found themselves out of work as a result of the slump in the retail sector.

The news will be a particularly bitter pill to swallow in Trowbridge after supermarket chain Waitrose pulled the plug on plans to open a new store in the Wiltshire town saying the plans were not profitable.

The decision to pull the plug on Bristol's Harbourside store will also be seen as a blow for an area which in the process of trying to establish itself.

Around £350 million has been spent on redeveloping the former Canon's Marsh area of the city but other business including the Carpe Dim restaurant and the defunct Wildwalk attraction have struggled to attract customers.

However, stores already in the pipeline will still go ahead including the new outlet at the Gloucester Quay development.

The chairman of M&S Stuart Rose was brought into revive the company and after early successes, performance of the firm has taken a turn for the worse over the last six months.

He said: "We believe that we have looked at every available option and opportunity to keep the Harbourside store open, but in this tough trading environment it is no longer commercially viable.

"We are very sadly putting forward this proposal to close the store and will listen carefully to any suggestions employees have for alternatives. We have a great team here and I would like to thank them for their commitment to the store and for their hard work delivering excellent service to our customers."

The struggling company issued a dire set of results yesterday and revealed sales tumbled by 7.1 per cent during the all important run-up to Christmas.

The company – which employs around 70,000 staff in the UK – plans to close 27 stores with the loss of up to 780 jobs. Up to 450 more will go from its head office.

Of the stores to close, 25 are under-performing Simply Food outlets, and two are small main chain stores selling both food and clothes.

The cost-saving drive also involves changes to M&S's final salary pension scheme – by capping employees' annual increases in pensionable pay – and altering early retirement benefits for those who joined the scheme before 1996.

M&S hopes to cut costs by up to £200 million through the moves.

Executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose said: "We are aware that the proposed changes set out above will be difficult for those members of staff impacted, but, given that we expect challenging economic conditions to continue for at least the next 12 months, we believe we are taking the right action to maintain the strength of our business."

John Gorle, national officer of Usdaw, said more than 35,000 retail jobs had been lost in recent months, adding that firms should "hold their nerve" despite the worsening economic outlook.

He said: "We want to talk to the company to get an understanding of the business case that has underpinned this decision. The company does not formally recognise trade unions but I hope they will meet with us to have a meaningful dialogue."

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, said the announcement proved that union member Tony Goode, dismissed last year after revealing plans to cut redundancy pay, had been telling the truth.

But its high-profile promotional sales days – begun at the end of November to boost trading – ate into the group's margins, which will hit profits this year.

Experts are predicting the company to report profits of around £620 million this year - more than a third lower than last year's £1 billion.

Shares in M&S rose three per cent following the announcement.

There have been massive job cuts in the retail sector and other high profile high street names hit by the downturn in spending have included Rosebys, MFI and The Pier.