VILLAGERS are protesting against the loss of a remote countryside pub in the Black Mountains which has been closed for more than three years.

The Bull's Head at Craswall in west Herefordshire, six miles south of Hay-on-Wye, has not opened its doors since late 2014, but is thought to remain in the hands of its last owners, the Mackintosh family.

Now fed-up former customers have gathered more than 700 signatures for an online petition and are planning a demonstration outside the empty building next month.

The historic pub is one of the most remote in Herefordshire, but in the early 2000s was hugely popular with walkers and foodies.

Walkers continue to arrive, encouraged by the PH - public house - marking on Ordnance Survey maps but are then disappointed to find a closed sign on the gate.

Now residents, fearful the pub will be sold as a private house, have decided to stage a Bring Back The Bull demonstration outside the pub at midday on Saturday, May 5.

Artist Jim Ursell, who lives in the area, said: "We were talking about the Bull's Head and someone said we should all get together on May Day. Since that's midweek, we're doing it on the Saturday.

"But we are putting out a May Day distress call. I think everyone who passes the pub feels strongly about it. We think that if we don't take a stand the pub will just slip away."

The pub is thought to date back at least 200 years and for 150 of those remained in the same family until the Lewis family retired in 1998. It has recently been listed as an Asset of Community Value, which offers the chance to local people to buy it before it can be sold for another use.

Mark Haslam from Herefordshire CAMRA, the pub campaign group, said: "The Bull's Head is a real treasure. It is nothing short of a travesty that it remains closed, especially as there is no stated intention by the owners as to what their plans are for the place.

"It has been a tremendously successful pub in the recent past, and it is our view that it can be so once more. The owners should now either open up for business or sell it to others willing and able to do so."

At the demonstration on May 5 they plan to unveil a new inn sign designed for the occasion by David Bishop of Ewyas Harold. The demo, say the posters, will be "polite, law-abiding, sociable and indignant". All pub-lovers welcome.

To view the petition go to https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-bulls-head-craswell-1