THE owner of the Butchers Arms in Witney is hunting for a new landlord after the pub closed its doors at the start of the month.

Enterprise Inns said it was not in a position to give a date when the pub would reopen. It closed on Thursday, November 1.

The Oxford branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) has welcomed the news that the firm plans to reopen the Corn Street pub.

A spokesman for Enterprise Inns, which owns the freehold, said: “We can confirm that the Butchers Arms is closed while we recruit a new publican to take on this pub business.”

Tony Goulding, the pubs officer for Camra’s Oxford branch, said: “It’s unfortunate that it has closed but I think it will reopen and will be profitable in the future.

“The Butchers Arms was a freehouse about 10 years ago and it was the sports pub in Witney at one time, when it had pool tables and dart boards, but it has been in the doldrums recently.”

The closure of the Butchers Arms follows the closure and then reopening of The Plough, in Bridge Street, during September, after former licensee Robert O’Connell was declared bankrupt over an unpaid tax bill.

Enterprise declined to comment on why the pub had closed but a letter in the pub’s window said the firm had “entered the premises for the purposes of making them safe and not to bring the lease to an end”.