Heartstone Inns has sold seven pubs to Punch Pubs, with the deal brokered by business property advisors Christie & Co.

The sale includes the Bathurst Arms, a community pub with rooms situated within the Bathurst Estate and alongside the River Chum in Cirencester.

The establishment, which comes complete with separate 99-cover restaurant, bar and beer garden is now available to potential landlords via a management partnership with Punch.

The website listing states that the characterful and quaint pub is 'ideal for a passionate and entrepreneurial food-led operator or partners, with the skills and experience to build a premium food offer, along with developing the letting room and the drinks business'.

Other sites included in the deal are spread across Southern England and include The Cricketers, The Diggers Rest, The King Alfred, The Owl, The Pelican and The Talbot.

Punch Pubs & Co. is an independent pub company, with around 1,250 pubs across the UK. The group says it is committed to working together with the very best Publicans to build and grow community pubs.

Heartstone, owners of The Butchers Arms in Sheepscombe, were looking to sell their non-core managed house assets which were more suited to lease conversion and focus on their remaining great quality and well performing sites.

Punch chief executive, Clive Chesser said: "We are pleased to welcome seven wonderful pubs into the Punch family and look forward to working together with our new publicans and their teams.

"We would like to thank Heartstone Inns, which has been working closely with us to ensure a smooth transition for everyone.

"We have plans to invest in all seven pubs during 2020, providing them with industry-leading support to allow them to flourish while ensuring they continue to operate at the very heart of their communities. We will provide further updates as these plans progress but in the meantime the pubs remain open and trading as usual."

James Birch, co-founder and managing director of Heartstone Inns said: "We are delighted to have sold seven of our pubs to Punch.

"As a result, we can continue to develop and expand our remaining estate of large, food-led, managed pubs. We would like to thank our transferring staff for their loyalty and hard work and wish them, their customers and Punch the very best for the future."

The pubs were sold for an undisclosed sum which included six freehold and one leasehold asset.