A NORTH Yorkshire village could lose its second pub in a year, but villagers are fighting to save the venue.

The Rose and Crown in Sutton on the Forest has closed, leaving the village without a pub when just over a year ago it had two. The other pub, the Blackwell Ox, stopped trading in the middle of last year and has been the subject of planning applications to convert it into family homes.

Now support is growing in the village for plans to save the Rose and Crown, and local man David Brown is behind plans for a public meeting this week.

He said: "I think if the last pub closes it will rip the heart out of the village, because it really is a central point for us."

The pub hosts regular community "get togethers" for different groups, he said, and has been a popular spot for family celebrations.

Its owner Bruce Simpson said he wanted to see the pub continue as a going concern. He ran the pub with his wife Carol until 2012, before letting it out to new tenants. Now it has closed he said he would support a plan for locals to buy the pub outright, or for an individual to buy it and run the business.

"It has been a very very good business, and it could be very good again," Mr Simpson said.

Mr Brown is looking to neighbouring Huby for inspiration, after villagers there clubbed together to buy and save their Post Office. Denise Howard, who was behind the Huby project, will be at the meeting in Sutton on Forest to talk about how that plan was achieved.

The public meeting is on Friday, November 13 from 7pm to 8.30pm in the Grey Village Hall, Sutton on the Forest.