Residents hoping to save the pub at the heart of a Cotswold town appear to have cause to celebrate after multi-millionaire entrepreneur Julian Dunkerton bought the property.

The Crown at Michinhampton has been shut since 2012 and residents feared it would be lost forever when then owners Ei Group moved to put it on the market.

Minchinhampton Parish Council stepped in and got the 300-year-old building declared as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) by Stroud District Council, giving residents a chance to put in a bid for ownership.

That deadline was believed to have passed on June 19, but it now looks like it could be kept as a pub if its new owner brings it under the wing of his expanding pub, restaurant and hotel chain, Lucky Onion Group.

"At last, the moment you have been waiting for. We are delighted to announce that the Crown Inn has been SOLD!" said one of the leading campaigners to save the pub, Simon Witney, posting on The Crown Inn's Facebook page.

Mr Witney is a director of Minchinhampton Crown Inn Ltd, the group set up to help keep the building as a pub for the community.

"If no buyer had come forward to buy it, we would have carried on till we raised enough money to have bought it ourselves, for (and on behalf of) the community.

"We are confident that the likely purchaser will do the right thing by the pub and the town in terms of restoring it sympathetically and appropriately."

A spokesman for Ei Group, formerly known as Enterprise Inns plc, said: "The Crown is no longer our pub. It is now in the hands of the Lucky Onion Group."

The value of the deal has not been disclosed.

Mr Dunkerton stepped down from his position on the board of Superdry plc, the world-wide fashion chain he founded, earlier this year to pursue other business interests.

Since then he has been investing in his family's cider business, Dunkertons Cider, now relocated to Dowdeswell Estate near Cheltenham, and building up his Lucky Onion portfolio.

This now includes No. 131, No. 38 The Park, The Tavern, The Wild Duck in Cirencester and The Wheatsheaf Inn in Northleach.

He has also recently bought The George Hotel in Cheltenham.

Dunkerton Properties is headquartered on the same Charlton King business park, also owned by Julian Dunkerton, that construction business Dowdeswell Estates is based. He has used the building firm to carry out the renovations his Lucky Onion properties.

A spokesman for Minchinhampton Parish Council, said everyone involved in trying to keep the building as a pub and community asset was very pleased.

No one at the Lucky Onion Group was available for comment.