A MUCH-loved pub near Selby has been sold off after a long campaign to save it by locals.

The Bay Horse in Barlby has been under threat since a planning application emerged in 2013 to demolish the historic pub to make way for a 13 home housing development.

Although the first application was turned down, a second was more successful, leaving the door open for the popular pub to be closed for good.

Now a spokesman for owners Enterprise Inns has said: "We can confirm that we have completed a sale for the Bay Horse, Barlby and the freehold of the site has passed to the purchaser".

The town's district councillor Stephanie Duckett said that hope had held out in the village that a new owner might keep the pub - which legend says once hosted highwayman Dick Turpin.

Although the campaign to save the Bay Horse first focused on stopping the housing development, regulars later hoped that with a few changes to the plans the development might be able to go ahead without tearing down the pub.

Regional CAMRA activists also spoke out against the threats to the Barlby pub.

Kevin Keaveny, CAMRA regional director, has now said: "CAMRA is opposed to the closure of any pub which is of community value, and campaigns along side other groups to keep pubs open. In the case of the Bay Horse a petition of over 1,000 signatures was submitted."

Cllr Duckett said closing the Bay Horse for good would leave a hole in the community of Barlby.

She added: "We kept hoping someone would buy the pub to run it. The regulars were hoping against hope.

"All the clubs would go to the Bay Horse, it was always busy and whenever we had family events in Barlby they would get involved."

Without the Bay Horse, older people in the village will face long walks or bus journeys to be able to socialise with friends and neighbours nearby, she added.

Recent landlady Alyson Griffith, who ran the pub through 2013 and 2014, had called on real ale lovers in the area to support the Bay Horse and "use it or lose it".