The HAPPA farm, named as Gregory Farm after the founder, Miss Gregory, who gifted the estate to the charity 25 years previously, was according to estate agents, sold subject to contract recently after a swift decision by HAPPA to reduce the size of their assets.

The sale of Gregory Farm was dealt with by David James, a Gloucester based chartered surveyors and agent. Best and final offers were requested by 25th January 2013 and a sale was agreed.

The farm, comprising 69 acres of pasture plus 14 acres of woodland, a two bedroom manager's cottage, large visitor center, stabling, toilet block and menage, was advertised at £600,000.

The names of the purchaser is not known at this time.

HAPPA Chairman Ken Cranage explains: "I realise that this news may be surprising to many and on the surface, appear fairly shocking, but as a charity we are committed to supporting the key areas of our equine welfare work which focus on rescue, rehabilitation, rehoming and education and we believe this can be best achieved by consolidating our work and investing in our busiest area which is the North of England.

"Much has changed since Miss Yvonne Gregory kindly gifted the farm to HAPPA over 25 years ago and although her generosity has helped us care for a large number of animals over the years her surviving relatives understand the need for change and fully support our intentions to close the centre and further improve facilities at our northern site.

"We recognise that there has been much speculation regarding the future of Gregory Farm over recent months but we were unable to provide as much information as some would have liked in advance of this third press release in respect of the staff consultation process that was in progress.

"As a result of growing local pressure we took the decision to close the Centre temporarily until a final decision had been made regarding its long term future. I can now confirm that staff consultations have taken place and we have made a decision to permanently close Gregory Farm. Our biggest regret is that our loyal and hard- working staff (8 x full time, 4 x part time plus a number of casual staff) have now been made redundant.

"The situation has been very stressful and upsetting for all concerned, particularly as there has been a lot of damaging misinformation released via various media by well - meaning but ill- advised supporters but I can confirm that all horses previously housed at Gregory Farm have now been rehomed via our legally binding loan scheme or transferred to Shores Hey Farm Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre located in Briercliffe, Nr Burnley. No animals have been destroyed to enable the closure of Gregory Farm Centre.

"There has been a great deal of interest regarding the future of the Gregory Farm site and I can confirm that expressions of interest and offers to purchase were received by our appointed land agent within days of HAPPA receiving a valuation. To ensure that all options were considered, our agent, more recently, invited further interest by advertising the site on the open market. We now have a number of potential purchasers that are keen to buy the site and hope to be in a position to accept and progress an offer within the next few weeks.

"Beginning in early December we started writing to supporters who had kindly adopted animals based at Gregory Farm to inform them that their chosen animals were being rehomed or transferred to Shores Hey and to offer a full refund. However, if there are adopters who for some reason did not receive this information, then please call Julie Rickwood-Gan on 01282 455992 and she can provide you with details of the horse in question and arrange a refund if required.

"There are no changes to our loan scheme. Twice yearly visits will take place as usual wherever our borrowers are located and should a borrower decide to return their animal at any time then we will of course arrange this. In future all returned animals will be accommodated at Shores Hey.

"I would like to take this opportunity to publically thank our willing volunteers who supported Gregory Farm in all weathers. They were small in number but added a lot to ensure our animals were loved and cared for. We wanted to provide more information at a much earlier date but in maintaining the integrity of the consultation process and addressing our statutory requirements we were unable to do so until our recent letter to them. We hope our actions are not considered ungrateful as we have much to thank them for.

"Finally, we appreciate that many of our supporters do understand HAPPA's need to think strategically and the Board's responsibility to manage our charity as effectively as we are able in order to ensure that our good work continues well into the future but we also accept that our actions have alienated several good people, particularly those who visited Gregory Farm on a regular basis. We are truly saddened by this and hope that over time they will accept our decision and reignite their support.

"We have done tremendous work since Mona Huskie gave birth to HAPPA in 1937 and over the years we have taken responsibility for making difficult and unpopular decisions. It is because of this that we are still here and still saving lives. We are still called on to make difficult decisions in the best interests of HAPPA and hope that members of the public and our supporters in particular recognise this and continue to support the wonderful work that we do".

HAPPA claim that recent changes to operations have resulted in a more efficient frontline service, more effective management of the HAPPA Loan Scheme, a more efficient back office service, an 82 per cent increase in the number of animals rehomed and greater staff development and training opportunities.