It pains me to write this review as this is my local pub I've eaten at every week and where i have done all my special parties and celebrations for ages. But today a manager whom I have never seen before intruded into our celebration. Two elderly friends and I went to our Christmas meal there as usual. We brought all of our gifts in and were unwrapping gifts. I had spent hours baking & decorating 2 special cakes to give to each of my lovely friends as Christmas gifts. They really enjoy my cakes as they are decorated very meticulously with fun themes. I spent two days making them! They opened the cakes and were really excited, ooh's and ahh's and taking pictures of them when the manager walked up, interrupted us and asked us if we were going to be eating them. Or was i selling them? What?? We were thinking is this guy mad? I said I don't know we may decide to have a taste, why?. He then said we cannot bring cake in without asking. We said we have always brought in birthday cakes and no one has ever said anything in fact they usually give us a big knife and plates. Instead of just backing away at that point he decided he needed to make a point of it and that he'd rather upset good paying regular customers so he went on and said you wouldn't bring a cake to McDonald's would you? We serve food, you cannot bring food in. To which we replied, "we aren't in McDonald's, and people bring celebration cakes into pubs all over the country every day. It's nothing abnormal. These cakes were not even brought in to be eaten anyway, they were Christmas gifts that were unwrapped and it was really none of his business who was going to eat what and when. My 79 year old friend was in tears and upset that he so rudely killed a lovely moment as it was her turn to open gifts. We decided that we did not deserve to have our meal ruined by a hot headed manager so we left. We went to another pub and told the manager about the cakes and the awful service and she gasped and said we are very welcome to bring the cake in and she was happy to have us as new customers. We ended up not eating any of the cake in the end anyway. I will never go back to The Gough Arms. We have spent hundreds of pounds in there and were treated like children being scolded. The really bizarre thing is that the manager was so bent on making his point that he lost himself great regular customers who have spent a fortune in his pub. We can just go to another pub it didnt hurt us at all although it was upsetting, but he's the one who's going to lose hundreds of pounds because he lacked the intelligence to apply common sense to the situation and apologise. Or not have done it at all! read more