A new tenant for the Belper Arms in Newton Burgoland has yet to be found after the owners left last month.

Kirstie Croft, who also has the Bull's Head near Coalville, vacated the pub during September to concentrate on an 'amazing opportunity'.

But since then, it seems no-one has taken over.

The pub is recognised as the oldest in Leicestershire and dates back to as far back as 1290.

A message on the Belper Arms Facebook page reads: "After receiving many messages of concern regarding the Belper's length of closure, we can confirm that there is no tenant secured at the premises at the moment and therefore we can not offer any further information on this."

The page announced the landlady's departure two weeks ago and said: "The landlady and her staff have been offered an amazing opportunity at another premises which they simply couldn't pass up on, so sadly the Belper Arms has now closed with immediate effect.

"We have thoroughly enjoyed running The Belper since we opened in April and feel we have had the ultimate crash course on how to run a successful and enjoyable pub restaurant with obstacles stacked against us (covid, rural location, etc) but we felt it was our time to move on.

"We sincerely hope that future tenants continue our family orientated atmosphere, 5-star food service as well as the great reputation we have built.

"We would like to say thank you to all customers old and new and we wish the new tenants success and good luck."