A WEST Oxfordshire pub that was under threat earlier this year has been reopened as an independent business by a woman from the village.

Villagers in Hailey were concerned about the future of the Lamb & Flag after previous owner Greene King put it on the market.

A campaign to save the pub was launched and £175,000 was pledged by residents to save it.

An offer was submitted but the campaigners were trumped by new landlady Jo Winstone, who reopened the pub on June 15.

She said: “We are hoping to get it back to a drinking pub, and the response and support from everyone in the village has been fantastic.

“I used to live in a pub when I was younger and when the opportunity came along to buy this I thought I would give it a go.”

Mrs Winstone said the pub’s restaurant will be reopened in the next couple of months and offer traditional home-cooked pub food.

The pub is open in the evenings during the week and all day on Saturdays and Sundays.

Hailey Parish Council chairman David Musson said: “It is very important that pubs stay open in villages because they are the heart of the community.

“We have seen so many close in this area and I think everybody in Hailey is very pleased that we continue to have a pub.”

Karl McConville, who was part of the village campaign to save the pub, said the response had shown the strength of feeling in the village.

He said: “We have hopefully protected it from anyone who wants to change it into a property because we have shown a clear desire to keep the pub.”

Meanwhile, in nearby Stonesfield, a planning application has been submitted to convert The Black Head in Church Street into a family home.

Hew Mellow, partner at Kemp and Kemp, agents for applicant Design for Life, said: “The establishment has been marketed as a pub since March 2010 and during that time a suitable user has not come forward.

“It has reached a point where rather than leaving the building idle in a conservation area, a commercial decision has been taken to try an alternative use.

“The obvious alternative use is clearly a family house.”

Stonesfield has another pub in the village and a social club.

West Oxfordshire District Council will decide on the application and, if permission is given, the home could be on the market by Christmas.