A FORMER care home where residents were given two hours to leave is to go under the hammer.

Great Harwood Lodge will be auctioned in September after receivers were given a possession order, which became valid yesterday..

The home closed in May, with the 17 residents given two hours to leave.

Security guards were called to the site, in Edward Street, Great Harwood, to protect the premises.

They will remain there around the clock until the building is sold.

The possession order was granted at Blackburn County Court earlier this month.

It is not known how much the 24-bedroomed property will be marketed at.

Preston-based auctioneers Pugh and Company said the property was probably going into their September auction but they had no details of a guide price yet.

Former owner Pam Jackson has maintained she wants to buy the property back.

The 45-year-old said she had only ever missed one repayment on the mortgage of the home, which she says she bought for £500,000 in 1990.

But receiver Andrew Rodger, of Leeds-based GVA Grimley, said: "The place is on the market. I have got it in an auction in September and, if there's enough interest generated at the time, it will go."