A VILLAGE pub has been sold to an award-winning chef for half a million pounds at auction.

Martel Smith is planning a £100,000 refurbishment at The Dawnay Arms, in Newton-on-Ouse, near York, after taking on the pub with his partner, Kerry Ward.

The couple, from Leeds, plan to turn the run-down building into a gastro pub in time for a grand opening in August.

Meanwhile, Martel, 28, will continue to oversee his restaurant in Leeds - No 3 York Place - which won Yorkshire Restaurant Of The Year in the 2004 Yorkshire Life awards.

He said: "We had been searching for a suitable investment for about a year and had more or less given up any hope of finding the right place in Yorkshire when this came on the market. It was love at first sight."

The Dawnay Arms was built in 1772 and was open for business until two-and-a-half years ago when it fell into disrepair.

There are gardens stretching down to the river and Martel said he was planning to keep the style "rustic".

He said: "It's such an idyllic spot and I think people will understand why we couldn't resist buying here when they come to see us."

Kerry, 28, who was restaurant and bar manager of the Hilton, in Leeds, until going on maternity leave at the end of last year, said: "We bought it by auction and it was undoubtedly the most terrifying experience of my life.

"We've got a new baby, Lucy, who is four months old - and we have to be slightly crazy doing this, but we just knew this was the place we had been looking for.

"We're planning a redesign of the gardens which will be on two levels, keeping the riverside as natural as possible."

She said the pub would use largely local produce and have a modern British menu, with pub classics such as smoked Whitby haddock risotto and steak and kidney pudding.