Landmark Ribble Valley village pub is up for sale for Â£385,000 plus

The White Bull in Ribchester, owned by Enterprise Inns, is being offered for sale through Westlake & Co chartered surveyors.

A community campaign to keep it open was launched two years ago and the pub was listed as an Asset of Community Value by Ribble Valley Council in 2014, following an application from Ribchester Parish Council.

Community groups will now have an opportunity to prepare a bid and village group Friends of the White Bull is set to consider its next step.

Friends’ convenor Marc Mallam said: “We are having a meeting with the parish council in the new year and probably a public meeting and then we will decide whether to register. The village has got to decide.”

He added: “Whether Friends register a bid or we set up a company to make the bid is something that needs consideration.”

Listing does not guarantee that a community group can buy it, but does provide a window of time to assemble funds.

The recently refurbished pub, dating from 1707, has had a chequered history in recent years, at one point shutting for more than a year. It is renowned for its stone pillars, reputed to be of Roman origin.

Any interested community groups must state their intention to bid in writing to Ribble Valley Council by January 17 and will have until June 6 to prepare that bid.

Meanwhile at the pub, which also has hotel facilities, Mark Ashton and Shan Parkinson, who have a five year lease, stressed it is business as usual.

An Enterprise Inns’ spokesperson said the sales decision followed careful consideration: “From time to time we identify sites that we do not consider have a long term future within our business.”