A BID has been made to make a closed pub a “community asset” to stop it being turned into a home.

To the dismay of locals, the Lamarsh Lion closed at the end of May after trading for more than 700 years.

A planning application has now been submitted to turn the building into a house.

The Bures Road property is now on the market for £500,000. Residents believe the closure would be a disaster for the villages of Alphamstone and Lamarsh, as there are no similar facilities in either village.

Alphamstone and Lamarsh Parish Council has now applied to make the Lion a “community asset”.

If approved by Braintree Council, it would allow a community group time to put together a bid for the building and keep it for the local community.

It could reopen as a pub with other community facilities.

Parish councillor Andrew Marsden said: “The Lamarsh Lion is a very ancient pub. Records show that there has been one on the site since 1305. The Lion has always been the meeting place for villagers.

“It is the place where new residents meet the existing ones for the first time and make friendships, where people keep in touch with one another and exchange news, where people gather before weddings in the church and after funerals, where shoots, cycle clubs and walkers all gather.

“So it is a place vital for what we now call the social cohesion of the villages.

“It is also a meeting place for people from other local villages, allowing the discussion of local events, publicising fundraising by word of mouth, discussing the needs of people in the wider community, offering jobs and finding work for builders and craftsman as well as many other trades and professions.

“Its is also a vital part of the service local farm accommodation and bed and breakfast places offer their tourists and so contributes to the local economy.

“It is right on the Stour Valley Path, designated cycle routes and the Gainsborough Line’s advertised walks from Sudbury and Bures Station.

“None of us can imagine what it would be like without this once-thriving and well-loved pub and we are determined to save it from becoming just another house after seven centuries.”