A south Shropshire pub with a troubled past has reopened under new management for the second time in 12 months.

The new supervisors have moved in to the Bull Hotel, Ludlow.

Matthew Clark and Mel Milner today vowed to work to make it the best pub in Ludlow.

Mr Clark said: “We are going to start doing food again, using the hotel and trying to make it like it used to be 10 years ago when it was the best pub in Ludlow.

“We are going to continue with music at the weekends and we are going to look into ‘curry-oke’ nights.”

Mr Clark said they wanted to make sure the fringe festival continued at the Bull and he had already spoke to the manager of the neighbouring Feathers Hotel and the annual Boxing Day tug of war would be going ahead as usual this year.

No-one was available for comment at Marston’s, which owns the Bull Hotel.

Last year the then landlords Michael Ashton and Liam Bufton, shut the pub and left town without waiting for the outcome of a licence review after 37 complaints of anti-social behaviour.

Staff were given only two days notice that the pair were leaving.

The police submission to the South Shropshire Licensing Committee had listed 28 incidents and significant visits to The Bull since December 2007 up until the review in 2008.

Residents had also complained about noise and several submitted logs detailing their grievances.

A former employee, Ann Morgan, who had a personal licence to sell alcohol, stepped in to reopen the pub in time for the Christmas trade last year and run it on a temporary basis.