Samuel Williams, The Castle Hotel, Ruthin, spent the early hours of 19 May delivering his beautiful baby son at home.
Samuel said ‘’Mum, Steffi-Louise did superbly well but the ambulance crew didn't quite make it in time which left me to deliver him. I guess I could consider midwifery (Ha-ha!). Baby Jacob is fine and healthy and mum is doing well.
Congratulations Samuel and Steffi-Louise on the safe arrival of gorgeous Jacob.
The local East of England Ambulance service in Watford received a donation of crisps, nuts and biscuits from the Wethercentre this week.
Susie Rogers, Wethercentre restaurant manager, said ‘’our donation was very well received, the ambulance crew will have nibbles for quite some time to come!’’
Kate Nott and her team from The Liquorice Gardens, Worksop are reaching the £1k fund-raising barrier for CLIC Sargent.
Kate wrote saying ‘’I wanted to share the fantastic fund-raising work that team Liquorice have been doing for CLIC Sargent during lockdown. Activities have included step/distance challenges, on-line raffles and a Richard Iliffe’s live chest wax (ouch!). I’m extremely proud of our pub team.’’
Natasha Jervis, The Blackwater Stream, Broadstone has captured the ups and down’s of lockdown in this short poem.
‘’The team are looking forward to getting back to work, we’re a lot closer through all this which is great.’’ Move over Simon Armitage (poet laureate) we think ‘A kind of poem by Tasha’ beats ‘Lockdown’ any day!
So instead, his girlfriend Elise Richardson brought the Dockle to him, recreating a replica in her dining room.
“So we told him we couldn’t do that but then, out of nowhere, me and his parents thought why don’t we throw him a Wetherspoons party and it got out of hand.”
To put the fake Spoons together, Elise organised her own paper plates online and Danny’s uncle Alan Bessell created a replica Wetherspoons sign to hang over the door.
Elise said: “The first thing we did was the paper plates; we were trying so hard to find actual Wetherspoons plates but we couldn’t find them anywhere.
“But I found a company online where you could personalise paper plates, so I got a picture of the plate online and then just made them myself.
“Dan’s uncle managed to make the Wetherspoons sign that’s outside and shipped it down to us which is amazing. That’s going to be around forever.
The backdrop and the carpet we got from a printing company and all the other little things we just bought online.
Birthday boy Danny said: “I was speechless.
“I found it funny but I couldn’t really believe they’d gone to that much effort.
“I’m sure I’ll go back to the Dockle after lockdown. It will probably be a bit weird going outside and it looking the same, but I’m pretty sure that even the Dockle can’t beat my Wetherspoons at home.” To top it off, Danny was presented with a handmade burger cake complete with sides to make up his favourite meal.
He also enjoyed bottomless cokes and beers that were included in the price of his meal.
Natalie Higgs and the team from The Coinage Hall in Helston, Cornwall had an online bake. It’s too hard to choose the winners Natalie – you’re all this week’s star bakers!
George Leadbitter, The Percy Shaw, Halifax, wrote in to say thanks to his area manager, Barry Back, for running the Big Wetherspoon quiz for the local community. George said ‘’Barry has managed to keep a lot of employees’ morale up by hosting a quiz on a Sunday night. He’s carrying on until the big final on 21 June where he wants as many people to get involved as possible. We’ve raised over £600 for CLIC Sargent too!’’
Well done to Barry and his 400+ followers, hoping your final on 21 June is the biggest on-line Wetherspoon quiz ever! If you want to join, here’s all the details:
Wetherspoon is to invest an initial £11 million to ensure that its staff and customers are safe before its pubs reopen
22nd May
Social distancing measures will result in the employment of two full time staff per pub, slightly more for bigger pubs, who will regularly clean surfaces and touch points throughout the pubs.
Click here for the full article.
White Hart shows its heart
20th May
Emma Sommerford, Gemma Gillingham, Daryl Goddard, Phil Hackett, White Hart Aylesbury and Rachel Turner (Area Manager) spent some lockdown time decorating the pub in appreciation of the fab NHS.
Pro-bone-o!
12th May
Lauren Rhodes, Crown Inn, Knaresborough, has been offering a dog walking service for all key workers in her estate - It’s called ‘pro-bone-o’ dog walking!
Virus diaries
12th May
Jonathon Britten, Great Glen, Fort William, has been volunteering his services for the local residents of Ballachulish.
Having recently moved to this breath-taking part of Scotland, Jonathon got to work helping many of the villagers receive vital medical supplies and food.
One little duck
12th May
Donna Walker, Sir John Moore, Glasgow, arranged a street bingo night for her elderly neighbours with a collection donated to the local foodbank.
It’s a pugs’ life
12th May
Sharon Queen, The Coal Orchard, Taunton, has been using her lockdown time to make ’social distancing’ t shirts for pugs to raise money for charities working to stop animal cruelty in Asia.
Community support
12th May
Teams from our Sheffield pubs donated food and orange juice to the Sheffield S6 food bank.
Andy Woolley, Francis Newton, Sheffield, offered the use of free car parking spaces at the pub to NHS staff.
Jacqueline Morrison provides her local care home with a donation of essentials.
Happy 50th Saul
12th May
Sarah Rimmer, a loyal Spoons customer, wanted to treat her boyfriend to his favourite tipple of Black Bottle brandy as a birthday surprise.
Sarah wrote to us, saying ‘’my soon to be 50-year old boyfriend, Saul, loves going to ‘Wethers’ for Black Bottle brandy. There is only you and Australia that provide this beverage! I was hoping that due to the current situation you may be able to help me out to provide a little bit of a celebration for what should be a massive birthday!’’
Thanks to help from supplier, Paragon brands, we managed to get a bottle over to Sarah in time for the big celebration – another satisfied customer.
Cookies for Courtney
12th May
Courtney Buckenham, Kings head hotel, Beccles, is 8 months pregnant and craving for our cookie dough sandwich. Courtney said ‘’I've tried other cookie doughs to see if that helps me but it's just not the same!’’
In your hour of need Courtney and thanks to the help of our supplier, Sidoli, a cookie dough sandwich parcel is on its way.
Home sweet home
12th May
Dean Looney, Liberty Bounds, London, shared this heart-warming story of generosity towards others.
“I was living at my Nan's whilst working at Liberty Bounds but I got caught up down in Essex during start of lockdown. It was too dangerous to go back to my Nan's, so I was stuck in limbo on a sofa for a few weeks - my next step would have been a tent in a field!”
“10 days ago I got very lucky and found a lovely country B&B that is preparing 150 meals every few days for ICU staff at Basildon Hospital, and as long as I volunteer around the grounds doing landscaping and help make the meals for the staff at the local hospital I am free to stay until this is over. Andrew and Caroline Metcalfe and family who run Downham Hall are amazing and the work they are doing for meals for NHS staff is incredible. People's generosity during these difficult times is outstanding – I would have been homeless without them”.
“If anybody wants a lovely country retreat in Essex when this is all over, then Downham Hall is a great place.”
Thank you Andrew and Caroline from Dean, and us all!
www.downhamhall.com
We’ll meet again
5th May
Nico Williams and his team from Stannary Court, Plympton, are using the prominent town centre pub location to thank NHS and key workers whilst comforting customers that ‘we’ll meet again…’
Nico said ‘’The team had the idea of doing something with our large shop frontage and our fantastic relationship with our blackboard artist brought it to life.’
Frontline bears
5th May
Laura Plummer, The John Fielding, Cwmbran, is an avid crocheter and decided to put her creative skill to great use during lockdown.
Laura said ‘’I have been crocheting Frontline bears for NHS workers for the last 4 weeks. Her family of over 20 bears have been donated to carers, nurses, doctors and key workers.
Some bears have been made for free, and for those NHS workers that have insisted on paying, I will be donating the extra money to the NHS.
Good shed… Denis
5th May
Denis Williams is missing his local Spoons in Durham so much during lockdown, he has created one in his summerhouse.
Retired foundry worker Denis said ‘’I’m missing the pub for the crack we have with friends so we thought why not turn the summerhouse into a pub? I’ll be straight back to the real one when it reopens, though’’.
We’ll be waiting to welcome Denis back with his favourite tipple in the not too distant future.
Community spirit
5th May
Gail Briscoe, Market Cross, Holywell has joined forces with the local community to provide 1199 free meals for NHS workers at Glan Clwyd Hospital Bodelwyddan, Wales, helping to achieve her mission to ‘feed our frontline workers’.
Siobhan Hodge and Vikki Peverley, The Electrical Wizard, Morpeth, with their sons Max and Toby, have joined the volunteers in Morpeth Isolation Support Group. This team helps the elderly and vulnerable across the town by doing their grocery shopping and collecting prescriptions.
Vikki also ran an Easter Egg raffle via Facebook to raise money for a local family in need. She raised over £300.
During lockdown, Natalie Mays, Wyndham Arms, Bridgend, has raised over £500 for charity.
Emma Stewart, The Red Lion, Bedlington, who runs the weekly pub bingo, went door to door and hand delivered Easter Eggs to her bingo ladies and gents – the perfect Easter bunny.
Amy Lambert, The Central Bar, Carrickfergus has organised a bonus ball on her Facebook page and raised £127 for CLIC Sargent and £50 for the winner.
Home heroes - The 2.6 Challenge
5th May
CLIC Sargent is joining together with other UK charities in a brand new virtual challenge.
Whether you're running around the balcony for 2.6 miles, doing 26 press-ups with the dog on your back or bench-pressing 26 kilos with your grandchildren, we welcome your help to save the UK's charities. For more information, please click here.
For the love of scrubs
5th May
Shafia Philpot, Humphrey Bean, Tonbridge has been busy sewing over 100 scrub bags for nurses and key NHS workers in Tonbridge. Scrub bags are used to transport contaminated uniform or scrubs safely home for washing and vital in helping to reduce the transfer of coronavirus.
Ready. Set. Murph.
28th April
Frank Romano, from The Sheaf Island, Sheffield, is using his lockdown time to complete the incredible Murph Challenge.
A Murph consists of a 1 mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats and then another 1 mile run.
Currently on day 8 of the challenge, Frank says ‘’I’m doing a Murph workout every day, for 30 days, with Chris Rose, who also works at my pub. I’ve just reached £500 and I’m aiming for £1000 to donate to the NHS.”
NHS and key worker heroes
28th April
To express their gratitude for our NHS and key worker heroes, Mike Loveridge and his team from Swan & Angel, St Ives and Linda Coxshill and her team from Royal Hop Pole, Tewkesbury decorated their pub fronts with thank-you rainbows and messages from the local communities.
Providing PPE for NHS front line staff
28th April
Luke Dwyer, from The Golden Hope, Sittingbourne, has converted his 3D printer into a mask and visor making machine for NHS Medway Maritime hospital, Kent.
Lisa Watkins, from Malthouse, Willenhall, has been doing the same for her local NHS team in Cannock and Staffordshire.
Make mine a marathon
28th April
The team from Wetherspoons, Leeds Train Station, have been raising money for the NHS in a truly marathon way.
Chloe Reece said ‘’We decided, as a pub, to run, walk, cycle every day to collectively match the length of a marathon (42.2km). Originally we were going to do this over a period of time however, the first day we set this up, the majority of our team walked, ran, cycled and we covered the distance of a marathon. Due to the eagerness of our pub team to help raise money for the NHS we have decided to cover the length of a marathon each day as we quickly realised this is a reasonable target for us all!’’
The Marathon team have raised £500 so far with all monies donated to NHS Charities.
Essex Easter bunnies - facemasks sent to Rochford NHS Hospital
17th April
A big thank you from the community palliative care team at NHS Rochford Hospital, Essex. The face mask donation from the Wetherspoon distribution centre in Daventry is invaluable and greatly appreciated. Thank you for your kindness.
They made today's masks into Easter bunnies, put a smile on patient's faces at very difficult and unprecedented times.
Many thanks again from Danielle Hooper, The World’s Inn, Romford.
6,500 cases of fresh food donated to The His Church Charity
17th April
Our team at the Wetherspoon distribution centre in Daventry have been busy during lock down - donating over 6,500 cases of fresh food to the HIS Church Charity which provides food and aid to people in need locally and nationally. In addition, they donated over 250 cases of fresh food to local care homes in the Daventry area.
The His Church charity have now distributed over 750,000 meals since the outbreak, thanks to donors like Wetherspoon.
Wetherspoon pubs make huge donation to social supermarket after mass shut-down
Published in The Coventry Telegraph online on 23 March 2020
Two Wetherspoon pubs in Coventry have made a huge donation to the city’s new social supermarket after closing their doors in the mass shut-down.
The Flying Standard and the City Arms have given away crates of food that would otherwise have been thrown out after the Government clamped down on social meeting places in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The supplies, including 1,000 eggs, packs of sausages and boxes of fruit and veg, will be split between the affordable supermarket, which opened its doors to some of the city’s most vulnerable and impoverished people two weeks ago, and Coventry Foodbank.
Henry House, team leader at the City Arms, coordinated the Wetherspoon delivery with managers from both sites and the team at Feeding Coventry, which runs the supermarket.
The charity will use the food to replenish its stocks, which have been hit by panic-buying, and distribute a share to the city’s Foodbank.
Ellie House, project manager at Feeding Coventry, said: “We have been overwhelmed with the generous donations that have come in from local pubs and restaurants who are facing their own unprecedented difficulties. We would like to send a huge shout out to The City Arms and the Flying Standard for thinking of us at this time.”