A VETERAN York landlady has called last orders for the final time after losing her lengthy battle to save her pub.

Dee Ralph has run the Bay Horse, in Blossom Street, since 1983, but has now had it repossessed by Enterprise Inns after falling behind on her rent.

After more than a quarter of a century behind the bar, Dee has now closed the pub and has been told she must leave by Monday.

The pub becomes the latest in a growing list of closures in York, but it is set to reopen with a new publican within ten days.

Dee and her son, David, fell behind on their rent last summer, when the four-day Ebor Festival at York Races was cancelled due to heavy rain. She struggled to recover, and was unable to catch up on the arrears.

She said: “Obviously, I am dismayed at the way it has gone. What can I say? There is a lot going on in the world and you can try your best, but sometimes with these big companies that is not enough.”

Dee said she had suffered a heart attack in March, shortly after she turned 60, and she decided to close the pub suddenly last Thursday, rather than face the emotion of a long farewell this week.

She said: “I was really struggling. People kept asking where I was going or who would take over. I have got a lump in my throat.”

Dee said she would not take another publican job, but said: “There will be something else out there and I am looking forward to it in a way.

“It’s the way it has happened that is sad. I would have preferred to have sold up and gone out on a high after 26 years.

“It’s been a really good local pub and I know a lot of my regulars and my business partners in this road are all upset.

“The Bay Horse, with David and I, has been a mainstay of the community and now all my good customers are having to find a new place to go.

“I have had enough now. The whole trading system has gone. The fun of running a pub with a proper brewery has long gone. What’s the world coming to now?”

A spokeswoman for Enterprise Inns said: “We can confirm that the pub has closed temporarily.

“However, the pub will re-open on the weekend of June 5.”


Historic city pub closes

ONE of York’s most popular historic pubs, The Royal Oak in Goodramgate, has closed unexpectedly.

A spokeswoman for Punch Taverns, which owns the pub, said: “We are currently addressing some issues with the licensee of the Royal Oak.

“Our priority will be to re-open the pub as soon as possible.”

The pub is recognised as one of the best beer pubs in York.

According to the Real Ale in York guide, published by the York branch of the lobby group Camra, the pub was built in 1591.

It was given a Tudor-esque revamp in the 1930s and the pub boasts one of only three intact, interwar, pub interiors in York.