AFTER serving their Oxford community for more than a quarter of a century, husband-and-wife team Glyn and Gina Millard are calling time at their pub.

The couple, who have run the Fairview Inn in Glebelands, Headington, for 29 years, are leaving after owners Enterprise Inns sold the premises.

They will host a farewell party with the Oxford Country Band on Thursday to thank their loyal customers.

Mr Millard, 62, said: “It will be a chance to say goodbye to a lot of friends and we want to say thank you. It should be a good night as all the drink has to go. We are holding our heads up high.”

He said they had been given just three weeks’ notice to leave the pub and added: “There isn’t going to be any Christmas this year for Gina and I.”

Enterprise Inns spokeswoman Amy Dolphin confirmed contracts had been exchanged for the sale of the Fairview. She said it would remain a pub but could not say who the new buyer was.

Mr Millard said: “I am retiring and have had enough of the pub trade, but I hope there will be life after we have gone and it will be nice if we can come back as customers.”

The pub, which was built by Reading-based brewers H & G Simonds and opened in 1959, was put up for sale earlier this year.

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has listed the pub on its national inventory of historic pub interiors as having “wonderful” full-height wall panelling.

Oxford City Council designated it as a community asset on July 16 this year after residents launched a campaign to save it.

They then had six weeks to submit a notification that they wished to become a preferred bidder. But this did not happen after residents were unable to raise the £385,000 needed to buy the pub, and it was then put on the market.

The sale of the Fairview Inn follows that of the Quarry Gate in Headington to Seville Developments of Rugby for £600,000 this year and the closure of the nearby Crown and Thistle in January last year after Greene King said it was unviable.