UNCERTAINTY surrounds the future of a community pub after it closed suddenly and is now sitting with its doors and windows boarded up.

The Barge Inn, in High Road, Vange, stopped serving the weekend before last – two years after the pub last closed unexpectedly, only to reopen within two months under new ownership.

Byron Taylor, Labour borough councillor for Vange, said: “The Barge Inn has always been a central part of the Vange community.

“It is one of the few places in the area where people can meet for a drink, so it would be a real shame if it were to close permanently.”

The 200-year-old pub closed mysteriously after a New Year’s party at the start of 2013.

Previous landlords Emma and Clive Langley signed a 30-year lease in 2007, but within a year told the Echo the business was struggling because of the recession.

It reopened in February 2013 under the management of new landlords Michael and Margaret Blackmore.

A beer house is believed to have existed on the Barge site since the early 1800s and the pub took the name the Barge Inn in the 1840s.

The Echo approached owner Enterprise Inns for a comment, but it had not responded by the time we went to press.