A PUB that has been a familiar landmark on the A64 for decades has closed its doors for the last time.

Regulars said they feared the Fox And Hounds at Copmanthorpe would be turned into housing as they gathered at its bar for last orders on Sunday evening.

Records show the pub has been on the site for at least 144 years, but Enterprise Inns plc, which manages the pub, got outline planning permission in 2006 for eight flats on the land.

Outside, on the high fence that now separates it from the A64 dual carriageway, daubed in paint are the words “the fox is dead”.

As she served customers, Tabs Johnson, daughter of landlord Kevin Johnson, said: “There is quite a good crowd in at the moment. Obviously everyone is devastated about us leaving, but there is not a great deal we can do about it.”

She said she understood the property had been sold.

The last drinkers were unable to watch television or listen to music – all the electronic equipment had already been removed when they arrived.

David Paul, of Colton, who had been going to the pub for ten years, said: “We like coming here. It is just disgusting that it is closing.”

Villager Sue Farthing said: “A lot of us go by for a drink now and then. I feel so sorry for them.”

She said there had been a lot of changes of landlords in recent years.

The pub used to be directly on the A64 until the traffic-light controlled junction, known as the Fox And Hounds junction, was closed and replaced by a flyover for safety reasons.

Instead of running on to the A64, Top Lane beyond the pub became a lane running alongside the dual carriageway.

•City of York Council received nine letters of complaint on the grounds of loss of privacy and increased noise and risk to pedestrians about the 2006 planning application which assumed the pub would continue to operate. The planning consent runs for a maximum of five years.