Villagers are renewing their campaign to get a pub re-opened to save it from becoming a house.

They want the Dashwood Arms -- known to drinkers as The Old Dashy -- to become the centre of community life in Kirtlington, near Bicester, where traditional games like darts, dominoes and pool can be played again.

For years the pub in the middle of the village, beside the Bicester to Witney road, was the meeting place before celebrations for the Lamb Ale Feast, an event which dates back to medieval times.

But the pub closed more than a year ago and windows have been boarded up.

The owners,Thomas and Company Developments, of Hungerford, originally applied to Cherwell District Council for a change of use from a pub to a house but withdrew the plan.

In an attempt to make sure any subsequent application is refused, Valerie Bass pictured, front, and her friends Barbara Holton, left, and Edna Edgington are raising a petition.

Mrs Bass, of Bletchingdon Road, Kirtlington, said: "We want the Dashwood Arms to become the centre of village life again."