Regulars at a popular village pub are concerned it has been closed and boarded up without any warning.

Don Kirkby, who has been a regular at the the Lamb, in Bladon, near Woodstock, since 1956, said: "We knew the landlord, Peter Collett, wanted to retire, but there doesn't seem to have been any attempt to find a replacement. It's a popular pub used by people from the village and outside.

"It had two darts teams, two bar billiard teams, a pool team and a crib team.

"A lot of people are upset. We're worried the site will be used for development."

Sir Winston Churchill and other members of the Spencer-Churchill family are buried in the churchyard near the former Morrells pub.

Morrells sold 107 pubs to Greene King in a £67m deal earlier this year. The Lamb was one of the few that Morrells retained, but it is now owned by QP Bars.

Alison Bromhill, a spokesman for QP Bars, said: "Peter Collett, the previous tenant, wanted to retire and, although his tenancy agreement hadn't expired, we agreed to let him go early.

"There are a lot of attractive tenancies on offer in Oxfordshire and we're finding it very hard to find a tenant of the right calibre to take over this site.

"We've therefore had to close the pub for the time being."