Nick, you're making me wish I'd bought that house in Flaxton. Humphrey Smith certainly has a lot to answer for; I was recently talking to the now ex-landlord at The Malt Shovel in Oswalkirk and he was saying that his wife wasn't even allowed to have the television on in the kitchen when she was cooking and they had to get a special dispensation for carol singers to come in at Christmas.

I went into the Jolly Sailors during Whitby Folk Week last year and there were two people sat in the bar. We were then told that they couldn't serve us because they didn't allow children in and we had our 8-year old with us. It's put me off going into any Sam Smith's pub now, which is a pity as they are usually great pubs with excellent beer. Does Humphrey Smith care? Of course not, he's sitting on millions of pounds worth of property.