End of era as Darwen pub goes up for sale

The closure of the Britannia Inn, Bolton Road, has been described as ‘the end of an era’.

Now Thwaites has put the pub on the market for £160,000 after deciding it was ‘no longer viable in our estate’.

The pub is the second one to close on Darwen’s busy main road.

The Mill Gap shut after being put up for sale by Thwaites in 2009. It is now a commercial building.

Brian Taylor, Labour councillor for Sunnyhurst said Darwen’s pub trade has been suffering for a while.

He said: “The Brit has been a popular pub ever since I was a lad and with the Mill Gap shutting across the road its a sign of the times.

“Because the two pubs were such a short distance from each other people used to go in to the two probably on the same day. It’s the end of an era.

“What we can do about the future of Darwen’s pubs, I don’t know.”

The Britannia Inn, which closed in May, is up for sale for £160,000 with Trevor Dawson Commercial Property Consultants.

Andrew Buchanan director of pub operations at Thwaites said: “We’ve looked closely at the number of pubs in the Darwen area and made a decision to sell the Britannia after the former tenants decided to leave.

“After serious consideration we no longer think it’s viable in the Thwaites estate.”

Thwaites said there would be a restrictive covenant on the sale.

The firm has previously used this tactic to prevent companies re-opening pubs in its old venues.