TWO pubs near Salisbury have closed, with the landlords blaming a lack of help from pub company Enterprise Inns throughout the recession.

The Ship Inn at Burcombe and The Bridge at Upper Woodford, which were both run by Neill and Sev Kefford, closed on Monday.

Twenty people have lost their jobs as a result.

“It’s sad it has come to this,”

said Mrs Kefford. “We hung on for eight years at The Bridge and 12 years at The Ship but ran out of steam. We have had no help whatsoever through the recession, they didn’t lower our rent and they wanted to put the rent up at The Bridge. If our landlords had helped, we would still be there.”

Mr and Mrs Kefford said road works in and around Wilton over the summer caused business at The Ship to suffer.

Wiltshire Council has also not helped us with anything,” said Mrs Kefford. “The road works in the last two weeks of August meant we hardly saw anyone in The Ship in the evenings.

“We would like to thank our staff and our faithful customers over the years.”

Nobody was available to comment for Enterprise Inns.