THE landlady of a historic Oswaldtwistle pub says she was 'a bit relieved’ by Boris Johnson’s announcement to close bars and nightclubs due to fears of coronavirus.

Emma Kearney shut the doors of the Black Dog on Union Road on Friday night and posted a passionate appeal on social media to members of the public calling on them to follow advice to self isolate.

The mum-of-one is a former nurse and she had called on people ‘to buy into’ the Government’s advice to help stop the spread of the virus.

She said: “The world needs us all to be still for a little while. Lives depend on it.

“To all the people who are grieving their businesses right now and wondering how they’ll survive. You will survive.”

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, the former mental health nurse, said: “I left the NHS in 2016 to run a pub and I still speak to people who I used to work with and I trust their judgement about the current situation.

“Dark days are coming and I have just asked for people to sit out the next two weeks and see what happens.

“Lot of pub landlords are worried about their livelihoods but we are all in this together and no-one is going to be untouched but in the grand scheme of things it will work out.

“I shared a post about our grandparents who went to war to save us and we are being asked to sit on the couch to save them and how the young can carry what kills the old, stop the spread.”

The 39-year-old added that she feels people need to know the Black Dog will survive.

She said: “My pub has been around since 1776 and has been at the heart of the community and through previous epidemics of Spanish flu etc and will continue to be there.”

Emma has been posting regularly on social media to keep people communicating.

She also praised locals for their efforts in helping to support elderly people locally.

“We have been given 240 toilet rolls in the pub to give out to the community as we put on social media that we were worried about the elderly that they would not be able to get any. We asked people to donate toilet rolls and we would give them a pint but no-one actually asked for the pint.

“We have asked the elderly people to stay at home as they used to come to our bingo.

“People in Oswaldtwistle are really shining and helping each other.”