PUB landlords in a country village today warned people against going into the licensed trade.

The warning came after the British Beer and Pub Association revealed how the number of country pubs had almost halved in recent years.

In Cliviger, some of the seven pubs are thriving and encouraging people into the area while others are closing down.

The Ram Inn has won awards for its food and the Kettledrum Inn is well known for attracting local celebrities.

Over the hills towards Heptonstall the New Delight closed last week.

Alec Heap, 50, landlord of the Queens Hotel, Burnley Road, said that he was finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.

He said: "It's getting worse, quite a few in the area have closed or are closing. In Cliviger Joe Armstrong in the Towneley Arms is selling up and going towards Todmorden. We've lost the Railway, Poultry Dealers, Fox and Hound, and the Royal George in the centre of Todmorden.

"On a Monday and Tuesday it's usually dead, Wednesdays used to be busy but not now.

"I'm now a one man band, the original corner shop I call it -- the supermarkets moved in and pushed the smaller shops out of business and the same thing is happening here. The larger breweries and companies are pushing the smaller, independent pubs out of business."

"I just can't compete with their buying power, plus the overheads."

Tom Boyle, 57, landlord of the Gordon Lennox, in Burnley Road, will retire in a few months but he also says that the situation is a lot different now.

"There was a time when there was always someone banging on your door at 5.30pm now you'd be lucky to get someone in by 8pm," he said.

"Drinking habits have changed you just don't get the same mid-week eight-pint drinker that you used to." Alec said: "The only future for country pubs nowadays is as restaurants, its the only way they can survive.

"If people think they can go into a local pub and make money they are wrong, its the costs you have to pay."

The Ram is a pub that has changed and has focused on its food, with some success -- it has scooped the Vintage Inns Mystery Diner Competition for the past two years.

Andy Devanney, the Ram's assistant manager, said: "We're more of a destination pub than a community drinking pub like the Queens, which is in the Good Pub Guide because of its real ales."

Neil Pitts, the Kettledrum's new landlord, said: "We do food and drink and I suppose we're on a level with the Ram. Oour figures seem to be improving but we have a very loyal customer base."

A spokeswoman for the British Beer and Pub Association said: "The future for many small country pubs has not looked good and the numbers have gone down.

"Prince Charles launched a campaign to encourage pubs and communities to act together in December last year.

"He encouraged them to look at providing other services like the post office, holding church services in a pub or making grocery deliveries."

John Longden, the association's property adviser, said: "We estimate that some six rural pubs are closing every week. Landlords must diversify beyond the normal food and drink boundaries."

The association says that foot and mouth, drink-driving laws, young people's preference for larger themed pubs in town and a shift from landlord to manager-run corporate premises have all had an impact.

Alec added: "The future is looking grim, not at all rosy, I can see pubs branching out to do other things than food and drink it's the only way they'll be able to survive."