CAMPAIGNERS who want to save Cradley's Crown pub cracked open a barrel of special ale at the weekend.

The Crown Resurrection Brew has been made by Malvern Hills Brewery as a gesture of support for the campaign.

The owner of the Grade II listed building, which has not been run as a pub for 15 years, recently submitted a planning application to convert it into housing.

A band of locals have formed a pressure group, the Cradley Crown Crusaders, to fight the application.

Members gathered outside the Crown on Saturday, December 28, to drink the Resurrection Brew and raise a toast to the success of their efforts.

"This is just the start of our campaign," said spokesperson Pat Fairfax. "Next year we hope to celebrate Christmas and the New Year inside the Crown, just like in the old days."

More than 350 people have signed the Crusaders' petition and 150 individual letters of objection have been sent to Herefordshire Council, which will decide the planning application.

The campaign is supported by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), whose Herefordshire branch has compiled a ten-page report opposing the plans.

It says the pub is a viable business proposition, as Cradley is the largest village in Herefordshire with no pub. Villages with just a tenth of Cradley's population have pubs, it says.

"To propose to demolish a listed building is bad enough, but to deprive a village of its social heart by closing the pub without looking for another suitable buyer first would be an absolute disaster," said Mark Haslam of Herefordshire Camra.

He points to the Live and Let Live at Bringsty, a few miles away, which is set to reopen in the Spring after years of campaigning.