An iconic Chorley pub is to close this weekend with the smoking ban and cheap supermarket booze being blamed for its demise.

The Swan With Two Necks, Hollinshead Street, which is located in a historic part of the town centre, will close on Sunday.

The pub, which employs 15 full and part-time staff, included a bistro, a roof terrace and an extensive beer garden at the front.

It has been run for the past six years by licensee Denise Hogan and her husband Nick, who said they were left with no alternative after trade plummeted.

Mr Hogan said: “We’ve had four successive bad summers and two of the coldest winters on record.

“However, I believe other factors have been more telling.

"More than 30 pubs a week have closed since the smoking ban was introduced and you can buy booze far cheaper in supermarkets than us in the trade can at wholesalers.”

Mr Hogan, former landlord of the Holden Arms, Haslingden, and the Waterside pub in Summerseat, near Ramsbottom, also claimed he had received little support from licensing authorities in the area.

He said: “We’ve had numerous planning issues and prohibitive costs for security.

"The final straw was when people couldn’t get to the pub last weekend because of treacherous ice and the cobbles hadn’t been gritted.”

Mr and Mrs Hogan said they would continue to live at the premises and that they did not know what the future would hold for the building.

Earlier this year, Mr Hogan was jailed after refusing to pay fines imposed when he defied the smoking ban at previous pub in Bolton.

He was freed after thousands of supporters raised funds to pay the fines.