Insiders blame the growing number of closures on drink driving clamp downs, changes in UK lifestyle, cheap supermarket booze and this year's smoking ban.

Trade experts claim that between 56 and 80 pubs are closing every week in the UK.

In Denbighshire at least nine pubs have closed in the past year, and others are feeling extreme trading pressures.

The Campaign For Real Ale (Camra) says its own survey points to 56 pub closures every month.

PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that about 5,000 more pubs will cease trading by 2011 — roughly 20 a week.

Meanwhile, 75 MPs have signed an Commons Early Day Motion expressing concern about the pub closures and a further 194 MPs signed another motion calling for action on cheap supermarket booze.

The Trefnant pub, in Trefnant, is the latest in a long line of pubs in the county to close its doors for the last time.

Having rescued the pub in 2006, the Julecom Group announced that it is withdrawing from the tenancy due to other work commitments.

"I took the Trefi over because I thought the village needed its pub," said Julecom Group MD Kelvin Corry.

"But I just can't give the time to the pub that it deserves and to make the kind of improvements that I'd like to."

The Woodlands Hotel, near Ruthin, has also shut its doors.

Gordon and Tracy Hogsflesh gave their notice and left on October 20, but the owners of Woodlands Hall Caravan Park plan for it to reopen under the umbrella of the park itself rather than tenants.

Elsewhere, the Dinorben Arms in Bodfari was boarded up in August.

"The pub was not capable of short-term profitable trading in administration, it has therefore been closed down. It needs considerable investment to bring it up to current standards and support profitable trading," said Mr Newell, the joint administrator of Gilbar Developments. The site is being offered for sale.

In Denbigh, after the death of landlord Bryn Jones in October 2006, the future of three pubs the Old Vaults, The Eagles and The Crown Hotel was uncertain.

The Old Vaults and The Eagles are now back in business, but The Crown remains closed with little chance of it reopening.

Owners of the hotel are now hoping to convert the building into two new retail units with 11 self-contained apartments.

The Bull Hotel, also in Denbigh is another business which has locked its doors to the public.

But things are looking up for this pub as plans have been submitted for a refurbishment that should take up to a year.

The Ty Mawr, in Gwyddelwern, reputedly the oldest inn in Wales, has also had its doors closed for several months now with no sign of it reopening in the near future.

Camra spokesman Owen Morris said it had taken really bad news to galvanise interest in the plight of the pub trade.

"Our statistics hit a raw nerve," he said.

"We are also delighted that so many MPs put their names to the Early Day Motion."