A HAWORTH pub has been sold off to a new company as part of a major deal.

The Old Sun, in West Lane, has been sold by Greene King brewery to Hawthorn Leisure. It is one of 275 properties across the UK to have acquired by Hawthorn, which is run by Gerry Carroll, a former managing director of Enterprise Inns.

No one from the pub had responded for comment when the Keighley News contacted it this week.

Haworth Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council chairman, John Huxley, who lives near the pub, said: "I had noticed that it hadn't been open lately. I know the licensee has been working very hard to make it a success.

"The beer there is reasonably priced, they are very welcoming, and they serve a large part of our community."

He added that the Old Sun is particularly dependent on customers from the local area.

"There are other pubs in Haworth which keep changing hands," he said. "I saw an item on television saying that five pubs a week in Yorkshire are closing, and I wonder when the Government is going to step in to try and help.

"Beer drinking is expensive and people are cutting back on their spending. As I've said before, the pub business is a very difficult trade to be in at the moment."