Hi there, sorry for your disappointing experience, with us last Sunday. As our track and trace info shows that all groups were seated undercover apart from a lovely polish pair who requested a seat in the open area as it had stopped raining, and were visiting the area on their way to Scotland, I can only assume you are that lovely polish couple. If you are the lovely Polish pair with the young lad, then I must say your written English is remarkable as I remember using lots of hand gestures and basic English for take your order and have a chat about having free Jabs in the UK. I do hope you enjoyed the three ice creams you ordered. I can also understand that you may have misunderstood about the other group. They were constantly trying to break Covid regulations and also attempted to turn on our equipment themselves which led us to have to insist they did not. As I am sure understand, that would be unsafe, especially when they tried to light a chiminea with young children running about. The group you refer to reminded for another 90 minutes after this, and were informed multiple times that the tables which we upgraded them to were booked at 4pm. They ignored our polite requests to remain seated whilst drinking as per Covid regulations, and became abusive to staff, which we don't tolerate as I am sure you understand. We then asked them to leave, as we had the safety of other customers to consider, they then became more disruptive. From a distance these things can easily be misinterpreted, and our insisting they leave may have seemed rude, especially if your English isn't your first language. I am pleased to see you started to write reviews on May 5th, ( so many one one day - you do get about) they can be useful for businesses to see where they need improving. You will notice from our previous reviews that generally we have outstanding customer service, so I am sorry we fell short on this day. I am glad however that your group did not have any issues with how you were treated well by our staff. And every table we spoke to after the group left to apologize for their behavior, did agree at the time we had been very patient with them. I wish you had made you discomfort known to us when we spoke to you, as we would have explained further and perhaps offered you all a drink on the house. We make every effort through Facebook post to inform customers that not every seat in the garden is covered (but about half are) and guests are advised to dress for poor weather. When seats undercover become available guests are invited to move if they wish. As the temperature drops with the sun going down we put the heaters on - generally by this time children have also left so they can be operated safely. Please do come again on a sunny day and give us another go. Our large garden is great on hot sunny days and our customers have a great time. Thanks again for the review

Dear Vicki, Thank you for taking the time to review your visit to our Pub over the weekend. You actually booked two tables, one of 6 and one of 4 all of which were on the grass near the kids play area. We notified all customers through Facebook posts in advance that they should dress for inclement weather and bring blankets for extra warmth. I am sorry the weather was not good on Sunday. However due to the on/off rain we offered to change your table to under cover but made you aware that the tables had bookings at 4pm. You said it was not an issue as you probably were not staying that long. As you sat down, I came to remind you of the covid regulations as you tried to sit in the gap between two tables. I could see this annoyed you, but as I said these are government guidelines. I did take exception to your attempts to light our chiminea, we do not allow customers who have been drinking to attempt to light fires or patio heaters (especially without asking) and especially with your young kids running about, as it is unsafe. I am sorry this caused you distress, which you made clear, so I honestly did not think you would stay much longer than 2.30pm. My staff reminded the group several times about the need to sit down whilst drinking, but these requests seem not to have been heard. My staff also reminded you at 3pm when you ordered drinks that the time to move was approaching, and again at 3.30pm when you ordered more drinks. I came out to you at 3.45pm and reminded you that the table was booked, and we needed you to move as the tables needed to be sanitized before the next guests. I returned to the bar at 3.50pm to find that your group had ordered another round. The drinks were delivered, and you were asked to move straight to the other table. Again, as we requested your group move we were met with refusal, I negotiated to give you a further five minutes which you eventually said was fine. Then another member of staff came on shift and saw yet another breach of covid regulations from a member of your group and my bar supervisor politely requested that the gentleman sit down. He was then sworn at and personally insulted, despite having done nothing more than ask calmly. We do not tolerate abuse of our staff on any level, so my husband came out from the kitchen to request your group now leave. He was also met with a flat refusal, abusive and threatening behaviour and we picked up the phone to call the Police. Only at this point did your group decide that we were the worst pub in the world. You said this was your first visit out but shouted very loudly that having visited all the other pubs in town we were the only ones enforcing covid restrictions. I thought at the time that this was a rather rude accusation on all the other pubs in town, who like us are just doing our best in difficult circumstances. I wholeheartedly apologize that Covid is a thing and that we must enforce these rules. I also apologize that we do not put heat on during the day, outside, but do not apologize for stepping in when your group decided to try and light this equipment themselves, as we have your safety as our priority. Sometimes under covid regulations we must ask customers to behave in ways that are not normal for our pub, socially distance, sit down, not sing and shout, we don't like it. But the majority of our customers have understood this, and that we are only acting to ensure the safety of yourselves and those around you. We do need to be firm, and after gentle reminders, those reminders can get more firm. So sorry if this came across as rude, but we were just doing our best. However, at no time do we, as a team, take kindly to being sworn at, personally insulted, shouted at, argued with or threatened, no matter how much money is spent. We keep a friendly relaxed pub, where families are welcome, and we do expect our customers respect this when choosing which language to use. After you left, we apologized to everyone else in the garden for the language used by your group and the disturbance caused to their quite Sunday afternoon drink.

Hi Pauline, Thank you for leaving a lovely review, and sorry for the delay in replying, we had some issues getting back on Trip advisor after losing a phone with all the log in details on! Whoopse. We hope you pop by again soon we are now nearly back to normal - Roll on June 21st!