VILLAGERS face a race against time to secure the hundreds of thousands of pounds needed to save their local pub.

The Crown in South Moreton, near Didcot, is for sale after developers were thwarted in their attempt to turn it in to housing.

It is listed as an asset of community value meaning the local community has an exclusive right to put in an offer to buy the pub, but only within a restricted time period.

This runs out in early April giving campaigners less than a month to raise the £230,000 which they hope will trigger grants and match funding to help them buy the pub for around £530,000.

The newly-formed South Moreton Community Benefit Society is now officially offering shares priced at £50 each, with buyers asked to purchase a minimum of five.

Society chairman Paul Jackson said: “Even before this share offer launch, we have received pledges amounting to around £125,000 from 94 local people.

"That’s fantastic, however we really now need to almost double that amount.

"Similar fund-raising exercises for other community pubs showed that they could massively increase shareholdings in the final weeks of the campaign, so I’m sure that South Moreton and our local friends can do it.”

The Crown, the only pub in the village, was closed in 2015 and villagers say they have had no where to meet up and socialise since it was lost.

A business case has also been published by the new society outlining how they intend to reopen the pub for the community.

It is also planned to host other facilities such as a cafe, meeting space, shop and parcel point.

The group is getting support from the Plunkett Foundation which assists local communities to set up and run pubs and has also been involved in the Abingdon Arms in Beckley, the Bull at Great Milton and the Seven Stars in Marsh Baldon.

A drop-in session will be held at South Moreton School on Wednesday, March, 14 from 6pm until 8pm.

See savethecrownpub.co.uk.