Bar Talker: What is the strangest item a customer has left in your pub?
Judging by the lost property at Karen Errington’s pub, the Rat Inn in Anick, Northumberland – which came in at number 17 on the most recent Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs list – legless customers don’t need footwear.
“The one that puzzled me the most was a pair of shoes – I can’t understand how you can walk into a pub with shoes on and leave without them.”
With footloose and fancy-free customers regularly leaving items behind at the pub, which overlooks the Tyne Valley, Errington donates seemingly unwanted items to good local causes on a regular basis.
“Every three months we fill a bin bag with lost property and take it down to the charity shop.”
Calvin Dow of the Castle Inn in Skipton, North Yorkshire, who levelled a light hearted dig at customers last year in his poem ‘Life Behind Bars’, found that one of his customers wouldn’t be able to match his way with words after leaving the pub.
“We’ve had all sorts of things left behind, from single shoes and jewellery to underpants, the most commonly left items are umbrellas and we’ve even had a dog left behind before, but the strangest thing has to be a pair of false teeth! I don’t even know how they managed it!?”
Claire Alexander, co-owner of Yubby Inns which operates Cotswold retreats The Ebrington Arms and The Killingworth castle and a regular contributor to The Morning Advertiser’s Bar Talker feature said: “This one’s quite easy.
“One of my pubs is in the heart of the Cotswolds so we get a lot of romantic couples staying.
“But housekeeping was still pretty surprised to find a latex catsuit after some guests had checked out. It had strategically placed holes.”
However, operators will be hard-pushed to top an item Lee Price from the Royal Pier in Aberystwyth – a former winner of the British Institute of Innkeeping’s licensee of the year award – found left behind at his pub.
“Half a foot of firm-yet-flexible PVC fun, complete with real-feel gonads and a sturdy suction cup which no doubt opened up a whole world of hands-free possibilities for the kinky keeper.
“Despite our Facebook appeal reaching 28,906 persons, it was never returned to its rightful owner.”
