Prayer centre plan for PNE players' favourite pub

The Withy Trees pub in Fulwood closed its doors in July last year.

Owners of the 171-year-old Withy Trees Hotel in Fulwood have been given council permission to convert the building into a prayer and education establishment.

The Noorami Education Trust, which is based just 75 metres away in Garstang Road, is to move its operation to the Withy Trees because its current premises are said to be inadequate.

The Trust says the property, which it bought in 2008, does not have sufficient parking and its internal layout puts limitations on its use as a centre for prayer and tuition, as well as for the operation of a community foodbank.

The Withy Trees site, with its former bowling green at the rear, is said to be better suited and the owners have plans to make internal alterations to create a prayer room in the former lounge bar where sporting megastars like David Beckham and Tyson Fury have also been customers.

The pub, which dates back to at least 1849 - it was a farmhouse called “Within Trees” before that - closed its doors a year ago due to a slump in trade.

Brewery giants Greene King boarded up the pub and put it up for sale, just a year after it did the same with The Sumners in Fulwood.

That has now been bulldozed ready to be replaced by apartments.

The Noorami Trust says it intends to sell its current premises in Garstang Road.

The property was originally two houses and will probably be offered for sale as residential.