One of Huddersfield’s best-known pubs, The Sands House, has closed suddenly.

And pub bosses are baffled by the apparent sudden departure of the long-serving licensee of the Crosland Hill establishment.

So sudden was his departure that a young couple were about to drive into the pub car park for lunch today but stopped suddenly when they noticed the string of large rocks placed across the entrance preventing access.

Enterprise Inns regional manager Jay Weir said manager James Haigh was supposed to meet him today, and he had been given no notice of his exit and had been left in the lurch.

He said: “I was getting worried in November when there were reports that he had got into financial difficulty. No-one was genuinely more surprised than I was when I heard on Monday that he had gone. He didn’t tell us anything.

“Clearly there were financial issues running along in the background. I had a meeting arranged with him for tomorrow afternoon to discuss how we were going to turn it around.”

He said that once various legal and administrative issues had been resolved he was anxious that the eaterie, which has been a well-known landmark for decades, reopened as quickly as possible.

He was hopeful that this could happen as soon as next month.

He added: “James has been there for the best part of 20 years and we have leased it to him for the past six years.

“He was the manager for the previous leaseholder for the previous 15 years. Nobody knows that business better than him though some of the standards had started to slip recently. It was all there on Tripadvisor.

“We were committed to help him. Ultimately it transpires that he didn’t want help. We are absolutely committed to getting it reopen in two weeks though there are a couple of legal issues we need to resolve.”

The review site has had some unfavourable reviews of the pub over the past few months.

One woman who didn’t want to be named, turned up to see for herself that the Sands had shut, said: “I had booked in for a meal for 10 of us on Friday but I’d heard the rumours on Facebook and so I thought I would see what was happening. I don’t know where we will go instead.”

A 20-year-old woman from Netherton said: “I am shocked. I found out on Sunday. He had loud music blaring out and there was quite a party. It’s sad. A lot of my friends have lost their jobs.”

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