Visiting us - Boat guidelines regards Canoeists, Walking Groups/Ramblers, Campers etc
Legal situation
The Boat Inn, its grounds, carparks and river banks are all private property and owned by ourselves. The fishing rights (not the land) along the river bank upstream past the big oak tree and alongside our car parks are owned by The Prince Albert Angling Society and their members are allowed to fish there and park their cars on our land. There is a public footpath and right of way running along the front of the pub through our tarmac car park and then off upstream along the river bank, which well behaved members of the public have a right to walk along.
Our desire to be public spirited and make people happy
As a hospitality business we are in the business of making people happy and fostering a good reputation locally, further afield, and on the myriad of social platforms on the Interweb. Primarily this is through making our customers happy but it also extends further and if we can be helpful to others without damaging or negatively impacting our business then this is what we are keen to do.
Who isn’t a problem and who might be
Walkers (ad hoc)
Generally, an individual or two parking their car in our car park and going for a walk, with or without a dog, isn’t going to impact on us much and it provides a useful service to our neighbours and immediate community, so no worries on this front so long as they behave appropriately.
Church goers and events
The church doesn’t have its own car park and is obviously an immediate neighbour so we always try to help them out if it doesn’t clash with anything major we may have going on. They are usually good at asking permission/checking with us and we also let them use our toilets.
Campers, camper vans and the like
Quite simply we don’t want people staying overnight on our premises, whether they intend to be a customer or not. This is partly for security and partly because we are not geared up for campers and also because we don’t want to set any precedents and become a campsite!
Large groups of ramblers or the like
Any large party, however nice, can be dominant and impact on the pub and other customers, which is why we are careful about the size of our bookings. Equally, when it comes to using our car park, we often don’t have spare capacity to have a dozen or so cars park up while people disappear on a walk for a few hours, especially at weekends, even if they do plan on coming to us for a drink or bite to eat afterwards. This sort of party size should check with the management of the pub and seek proper permission so that we can decide whether it is likely to cause us any issues.
Canoeists
These fall into the same category as rambling groups, as they can take up lots of parking space for several hours. However, worse than that, as they launch or land along our river banks they can upset the fishermen and also cause a disturbance to our customers. All canoeists must therefore seek permission from a manager at the pub before launching or landing on our property, so we can decide whether it will be an issue or not and guide them on where to arrive or depart to minimise disruption if deemed ok.
Our natural instinct really is to please, but sometimes pleasing one crowd upsets others hence the above guidelines. Thanks for your understanding