The Bickerton Poacher

"Really enjoyed our visit today, nice food, excellent service, decent beer. Staff and manager very helpful and friendly, will be returning in the near future in our caravan."

"It was freezing!! We booked a room and evening meal in advance for Valentines day, on being shown to our room (The Stag), we found it to be of fair size but basic, the bathroom again was a fair size, with a large double bath Including shower. There was one important thing missing from both areas .... Warmth!! The radiators were not working, a small plug-in oil heater was in situ in the bedroom, but this totally inadequate and the bathroom had no heating all!! On complaining to staff we were shown to, and given the option of moving to, one of several other rooms... but they were all without heating. So blatantly obvious that the heating system for all the rooms was broken!! We had travelled 50 miles for a one off event. and not wanting to let this situation spoil our break, we chose one of the smaller rooms (The Duck) and opted to have 2 heaters in there to make it somewhere near palatable... but this did leave the bathroom of this room without heating... and freezing! We decided to do the stiff upper lip thing and get on with our stay.. We had an evening meal, which was nice, and the breakfast was OK. Putting all of the above to one side... the Staff were very approachable and pleasant, they worked very hard through the day, and especially during the evening dinner session... special thanks to Riley and Grace! In summary... Would we opt to stay at the Poacher again, No! Would we opt to eat there again, Maybe! Score of average of 2 stars, which is based on 3 for the meals, and 1 for accommodation!"

"The best staff and just a really caring team on top of being a cracking pub. Over here from Australia for some family issues, one of which was getting my parents out after my Mum had become recently wheelchair bound. Not only is the pub really well set up for wheelchair access, the team bent over backwards to do anything they could to help out. Let’s not go past the fact that the food and beer is great either. Highly recommended."

"We stayed overnight Tues to Thurs for £170 and can honestly say it was the worst two nights sleep EVER. Room - The Duck Mould on all window frames, poorly sighted furniture, the most uncomfortable mattress ever. The shower pipe was caked in mould/mildew, the toilet was a poo with a view as it was directly next to the large window and to wrap it all off, there was nasal deposits on the wall above the towel rail. Venue Country pub style pub serving usual beers and pub grub (which was overpriced for the quality) This was compared against a pub in the next village called Panama Hattys who’s food was similar priced to the Poacher and better by a mile! Our room was directly over the bar (so no thought as to placing us somewhere quieter as there was no other overnight residents) and you could hear every conversation, every word and beat of every song. What doesn’t help is that the music isn’t turned off until 01:00am each night. To assist with the disturbed sleep was the cleaner coming in at the crack of dawn and dragging the wooden chairs about on the slate floor for an hour each morning. By the end we just left, we’d had enough. No this review isn’t for compensation, it’s for those new to the area considering a short break. We’re returning home more tired that we arrived to go straight back to work. Hasten to add, we will never be returning. Whoever wrote the other reviews clearly didn’t experience what we did on two consecutive days out of season. Management - consider entering Four In A Bed, our comments will be confirmed independently. ."

"Take camper here regularly to walk sandstone way great little site at back of lovely pub good clean amenities for campers. Pub welcoming great ambience tasteful decor,tasty food big outdoor area too. Went in for breakfast too this time really good vfm and sat in lovely surroundings"