A FORMER cleaner at Blackburn town centre bar FJ Nichols has taken over another pub in the town, the Royal Oak pub, in Highfield Road.

Claire Hartley, 50, took over the Royal Oak, Highfield Road, on January 31 after it was closed for a month.

Claire was a barmaid for the previous landlady Tracy Bennet before the Royal closed. The Pubmaster tenant will run the establishment with help from her husband David, 37, and her children Andrew, 31, Jordan, 20, and Susan, 29.