A VILLAGE in North Yorkshire has lost its only community amenity, after the owners of the local pub and restaurant went bankrupt.

The Jefferson Arms – formerly The Indian Elephant restaurant – in Thorganby closed its doors at the end of September and now looks unlikely to reopen.

Confusion initially surrounded its closure, but it has now emerged owner Dorian Ransome, who ran the business with his, wife Sally, has filed for bankruptcy.

Mr Ransome took the business over in 2005 and caused controversy in the village in 2006 when he converted the building to a restaurant called the Indian Elephant.

Villagers were disappointed with the conversion and particularly unhappy with the name change because of the long association of the Jefferson family with the village.

Eighteen months later, in August last year, the pub returned to its former name.

Mr and Mrs Ransome said at the time they had decided to return to more traditional English fare and thought the original name would be more appropriate.

Now, however, the venture has finally closed and with it the last village amenity.

Angus King, who has lived in Thorganby for 30 years, said: “The villagers are extremely disappointed to have lost the pub. There have been several attempts by the same people to make a success of the business and it changed from an old village pub into more of a restaurant which some people were disappointed about, but the alternative has now arrived and that means we now have nothing whereas before we did have something and villagers were welcome at the bar at the restaurant.”

Mr King said it was the last amenity the village had – there is no post office or shop.

He said: “It’s been a feature of this village for more than a century.

“At one time it was a thriving business well-known for its food. In those days it was a proper village pub but since then it’s been in a number of hands and gradually failed.”

The Press tried but failed to contact the Ransomes for comment.

The bankruptcy is being dealt with by Tenon Recovery which is based in Leicester. A spokesman for Tenon said they could not comment.