Punch drunk from daft brewery rules
WE used to take our children to the Royal Oak in the summer. There was a small playground and the children loved going for an evening out there, sometimes after we’d walked round Ulley Reservoir. My husband and I would often go for an evening meal, either on our own for a birthday treat, or an anniversary and sometimes with friends,
How sad that the present owner has seen fit to impose all these silly rules (Mirror, August 8). How many people don’t wear trainers nowadays? As pubs are closing at an alarming rate every week, he’d do well to rethink his policies and encourage families to go along.
I also think it’s a shame for the locals who have no other pub to go to. Take a leaf out of our book, people of Ulley. Get in your car and go somewhere where you’ll be welcome. Brenda Savage, Rotherham South Yorks I also drink in a Samuel Smith’s pub and think owner Humphrey Smith’s policies are a joke. You can’t sing happy birthday to anyone, or show a video with sound on social media. We were also told to take down plaques of people who had passed away in recent years – people who had drunk in the pub for years and spent their hard-earned money to add to the profits of the Smith’s brewery. No swearing, no singing in a predominantly workingclass pub? He’s living in the Dark Ages. John James, Jarrow Tyne and Wear
With regards to your recent story about the Royal Oak pub in Ulley, South Yorks, it seems to me that people go into a pub to relax, not to be told what they can and can’t do.
It is a shame the locals don’t have another pub to go to, otherwise they could let the landlord know what they think of their ridiculous rules by taking their custom elsewhere.
At a time when pubs are closing down all the time, one would think they would be doing all they can to make their customers feel welcome. Perhaps, the locals should just enjoy a beer at home instead! Barry Hughes, Wrexham, Flints
Sam Smith’s brewery is and always has been eccentric about their choice of landlord or landlady, who presumably are employed to reflect the owners’ views.
Suffice to say the only reason a lot of people drink in their pubs is because the beer is cheap and the Old Brewery Bitter is tolerably good.
They think that amounts to their limit of customer service. Personally, I’m never comfortable in a Sam Smith’s pub so tend to avoid them. Eric Woulds, via email
The South Yorkshire pub the Royal Oak is said to be the strictest in Britain. Among other things, it forbids work clothes, baseball caps and trainers. Chip butties are not on the menu because they’re considered too common and customers aren’t even allowed to sit on the wall outside. In these austere times for the pub industry, it’s sad to say it but here’s one public house which deserves to go to the wall. Sam Johnson, Blackpool It seems to me Humphrey Smith is only interested in serving the kind of people he likes. When he gets to the Pearly Gates I hope St Peter says, “Your name’s not down, you ain’t coming in!” I spent 10 years working in pubs and came across people like him. In short, I think he’s a bully. Adrian Rogers St Albans, Herts