The future of Bradford’s Cock and Bottle pub is once again brewing up a storm, with Real Ale campaigners concerned about the interior which, in 2003, won a national award.

It was one of 250 pubs nationwide presented with a certificate acknowledging its historic interior. But instead of a secure future, the Barkerend Road boozer, thought to mark the spot where Royalist forces caputured the wife of Parliamentarian Sir Thomas Fairfax in 1643 during the English Civil War, has been embattled ever since.

At a time when heritage is all the rage, a building with 190 years of history – older than Salts Mill, City Hall and St George’s Hall – should perhaps have a lot going for it.

Perhaps it’s a matter of location. Two years ago, after the T&A ran a story about the pub’s doubtful future, readers were quick to respond with comments and reminicenses.

One wrote: “In the 1950s/1960s/1970s it was great. A blind person used to play the piano in the back room and everybody would enjoy a singalong. Famous for cracking a pint of Tetley’s... when Tetley’s used to produce a decent beer. Sadly the area has changed drastically due to road configuration and also the population.”

Another wrote: “Architecturally a great building but sadly in a dodgy area. Having said that, the Fighting Cock manages to survive and thrive in a much more rundown area.

“I used to go in the Cock and Bottle when it reopened a few years back... It was excellent. A few of the locals complained about expensive beer but there was no doubting the management desire to make it work.

“Then it gradually began to go down hill. Rumours of drug dealers and heroin addicts scaring off honest drinkers. Then it got boarded up again.”

A third reader wrote: “Last time I was in the place it was full of some very unsavoury characters. They were selling more lager and alcopops than real ale and it was just not a nice place to drink.”

The place that doesn’t seem to have a prayer as a local for traditional suppers of ale actually had the benefit of clergy. For nearly three years until March 2002 it was a Christian pub.

In spite of an exorcism to cleanse the pub of troubled spirits, the Christian enterprise hit stony ground.

The cock, it appears, has run out of bottle.