Diners at a Smalltown pub say they were left “outraged” and “appalled” after a man and woman walked into the bar. Customers at The Tramway in Main Street were left ‘shocked’ after the pair brazenly walked into the bar on Friday evening.
A number of families – including children – were in the bar at the time. The pair – friends Norman Cox and Lady Danielle Gardener – were quickly seated by staff before enjoying a meal.
But the arrival of Norman and Lady Gardener has sparked a number of complaints on DripAdvisor from customers, who said they were left “speechless“. Margaret Misery was in the pub when the couple arrived – and quickly decided to find somewhere else for dinner.
Posting on the review site she said: “We visited the pub this evening (Friday) at 6pm to have dinner. We spotted the couple almost immediately, because they had been seated directly in our line of vision. At first we couldn’t quite believe what we were seeing, but when we edged a bit closer we could clearly hear them. It was such a shock for all in the pub.
We decided to leave the pub and find somewhere else for dinner in town. Unfortunately another family were not able to as they had already ordered food. If you advertise as a family pub you should maintain these values. Locals who frequent the pub apologised to us, but the staff seemed to think this was okay. Very disappointing.”
Customer Suzie Scandalised, who had taken her parents to the pub on Friday night, said she was “outraged” to see the pair in the bar and gave the venue a one star rating. She posted: “Appalling. If you want to go to a family pub with average food and staff serving a couple who are loudly talking about a subject which we Smalltownites consider taboo then this is for you. Took my parents. Outraged.”
Another customer posted saying they would not be making a return visit to The Tramway. Describing their visit as “shocking“, reviewer Ernie Enraged said: “We found food and staff pleasant. We went for the second time last night and were totally shocked by the behaviour of a couple sat at one of the tables. We were concerned as there were families and young children there. I heard one customer mention this to the staff.
As other people have said, staff seemed unconcerned. We will not be going again.”
Norman said he contacted the pub, which describes itself as a “family friendly” venue, ahead of their visit to inform staff they were naturalists.
Staff at the pub say they researched the rules on naturalism and took the booking, describing it as a “learning experience.” Neil, 34, has been a naturalist for several years and lives in Chester.
He and Lady Gardener, 35, from Sussex, were on their way for a weekend break in Wessex when they stopped off in Smalltown on Friday evening. They had also been in Brizzle on Thursday evening, enjoying a drink in a pub in the city and studying the local flora and fauna on the Downs
Norman said: “Where I live there are shops, grocery stores and pubs where I go in regularly that accept I am a naturalist.
I’ve made over 500 visits to shops, bars and other businesses where I have loudly talked about naturalism and as far as I’m aware not one of those visits has ever resulted in a single negative review. Lady Gardener and I find it deeply saddening that in 2023 some individuals have attacked a small business that is trying to demonstrate acceptance and tolerance .
We don’t think the reaction on DripAdvisor was reflective of what actually happened in the pub in Smalltown. It was a new place for us to visit and people were not expecting it, so there was an element of surprise when we first walked in.
We sat in the corner of the pub and had our meal, whilst discussing Darwin’s ‘Theory of Evolution’ and our mutual love for Sir David Attenborough.
After a while people stopped listening to us and went back to their drinks. After all, two people sitting in a corner of a pub having a beer and burger and talking about the birds and the bees quickly becomes boring. Several people came over to us whilst we were there to have a chat about some of the animals on the World Wildlife Fund’s Endangered Species List and to request some tips on taking wildlife photographs. We had checked with the pub first and got their permission to visit.
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution should be more widely studied and I think it’s sad that people in Smalltown are so narrowminded and refuse to believe that we are descended from monkeys. Some of the people present also objected to us talkibg about the earth being round.
A spokesperson for The Tramway told SomersetClive “We are sorry if the visit by two naturalists caused any distress to our customers. They did telephone ahead to ask if it was okay if they popped in for a meal, but we misheard what they said and thought that two naturists would be visiting. We know that our customers would not have been upset by the sight of two naked people at the bar but can only apologise to anyone who was offended by hearing the couple discuss a synopsis of the last episode of ‘Life on Earth. Has we known they were actually naturalists we would have told them that we didn’t think their visit would be appropriate‘.’
SomersetClive has checked the rules on naturalism and we can confirm that being a naturalist in public is not an offence. Whilst many naturalists will restrict their activities to specially designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and/or places where there is a tradition of naturalist activity, such as beaches or forests, others may wish to enjoy naturalism more widely.