A VILLAGE pub that was saved from closure by people power has just been bought by its tenants.

Matt and Karen Williams reopened the Old Bush at Callow End in January 2015 after a campaign by village residents to stop it being turned into a home.

They took over after signing a three-year lease with the owners Jon and Guy Davies of Worcester, who had bought the pub from the brewery Marstons in 2014.

The lease had an option to buy, and Mr and Mrs Williams have now invoked that option and bought the pub outright.

This week Mr Williams said: "Things have gone very well since we reopened the pub, and evidently our bank thinks so as well.

"We've had a lot of support from people in Callow End and further afield, and we're very grateful for that.

"It's that support that has meant we were able to buy out the lease and now we will continue to run the pub as we have been doing, because that's what seems to work."

Mr Williams worked in the Old Bush back in the 90s when it was still owned by Marstons, and returned from running a pub in Hampshire with his wife to reopen it.

He said: "Now it's a free house and we are able to run the business the way we want to, unlike in tied houses."

After Marstons sold the pub in Upton Road in 2014, villagers feared that its new owners would convert it into a house. Powick Parish council, which covers Callow End, launched a campaign to save the pub, and an emergency meeting in October 2014 at6tracted around 130 villagers dismayed at the prospect of losing the pub.

County and district councillor Tom Wells spearheaded a bid to have the Old Bush declared an Asset of Community Value, which was approved, after which the owners agreed to lease the pub to Mr and Mrs Williams on advantageous terms.

Asset of Community Value status means that if the pub ever goes back on the market, there will be a breathing space to allow the local community to put together a bid for it.