'MILITANT mothers' mounted a protest picket as Oxford's first sex shop opened its doors in March 1981.

The handful of early customers – including two middle aged women – had to run a gauntlet of placard-waving protesters who thronged the pavement outside the shop in Cowley Road.

There were even scuffles as one man tried to wrestle a press photographer's camera from him after being photographed leaving the store.

The pickets – mothers, local residents and feminist group members – started assembling outside the shop shortly before it opened and said they planned to continue the picket for months if necessary until the shop moves out.