AN iconic pub that has been closed for nearly two years since going into administration could be converted into a house.

A planning application to change the use of the De Tabley Arms, Ribchester Road, Ribchester, above, from a restaurant/pub to a single dwelling has been submitted to Ribble Valley Council.

Manchester insolvency firm Tomlinsons were appointed the administrators of the building’s owners E W Properties in March 2007.

Specialist pub management company Daisy Chain Inns Ltd were brought in to ensure the pub continued trading but soon withdrew because it was not making a profit, and the building was placed on the market for £2.2million.

The planning application was submitted by Mr P Ratcliffe.

Coun Peter Ainsworth, who represents the Clayton-le-Dale ward where the De Tabley is, said: “It has been empty for a while and it needed something doing with it, I’m not happy it will be turned into a house.”

“It is an iconic building in the village and used to be the in place to go, everyone used to gather in there.”

The building, which also includes a patch of land that used to be home to Ribchester Cricket Club, was built in the 19th century by the De Tabley family.

It was owned by Whitbread Breweries for several years and leased by Blackburn pub queen Margo Grimshaw from the 1970s until she bought it out right in 1992.

Ms Grimshaw leased the pub to Burlingtons in the early 1990s and then sold it for £1million in 2002.

Coun Ainsworth added: “It is a shame that it looks like the pub won’t re-open as there are enough rural village pubs closing at the moment.”