THE WAGGON and Horses pub in Oxenhope has closed just nine months after it reopened.

Owner Michael Grimes said he reluctantly made the decision this month because both he and wife, Rebekah, are exhausted.

The husband-and-wife team also run the successful White Lion Hotel across the moor in Hebden Bridge and do not have time to focus on both hostelries.

The Waggon and Horses, in Hebden Road, had been closed for 18 months when the Grimes bought it after falling in love with it while driving from their Haworth home to Hebden Bridge each day.

The couple extensively refurbished the Waggon and Horses and reopened last October after putting in a management team and beginning to serve meals again.

They were keen to re-establish the pub’s participation as the starting point for the annual Oxenhope Straw Race.

They decided in June this year they would have to close the Waggon and Horses, but decided to remain open until the straw race at the beginning of July.

Mr Grimes said the long-term plan had been to run the Waggon and Horses ‘remotely’, with a separate manager on site, but they had ended up focussing too much of their time on the Oxenhope pub.

Mr Grimes added: “We’ve had to close the Waggon and Horses for an indefinite period.

"It was purely based on the exhaustion.

“We knew we couldn’t manage both the White Lion and the Waggon and Horses to the standards we require. The White Lion is a monster of a business and that will continue – business increases every year.

“Closing was a very upsetting decision to make. We love the Waggon and Horses and what we’ve done with it. The business has superb potential and it’s just a lovely place.

“We’re looking at solutions to get it open as a business as soon as possible. We still own it and we’ve still got the lease. We’re trying to sell it.”

The Waggon and Horses building, which used to be a farmhouse, dated from the 1850s or 1860s, when a farmer ran a horse and cart service over the hills between Oxenhope and Hebden Bridge.