A pub which was stripped of an award because it had Nazi memorabilia on display has had its award reinstated. The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) took away the best pub accolade but has now reconsidered.
The Hole in the Wall in Bodmin was last month named best pub in the county by Camra Kernow - in part due to its unique decor. The quaint pub is filled wall to wall with curiosities, including a stuffed lion, ancient guns and a picture of Winston Churchill, among many other items.
However landlord Steve Hall came under fire after a single complaint was made about "a swastika armband" on display in his pub - even though it was a memento dating back to the Second World War brought back by a British soldier to his regimental town and given to the pub to add to its collection of curios.
Following a single complaint by a Truro resident, Camra officials stripped the Hole in the Wall of the award saying it went against its national policy to have offensive items on display. At the time, Steve said the armband had been in the pub for 80 years and had to be looked at in its historical context. He said it was certainly not Nazi propaganda, adding that he had removed the armband as soon as he was made aware of the complaint.
Steve, who has been behind the bar at the Hole in the Wall for 20 years and has employed more than 100 staff in that time, told CornwallLive then that the Nazi armband, about four inches by one inch in size, had been in a glass cabinet on top of a pillar in a dimly lit part of the pub among all sorts of curios for decades. It had been brought back from the front by a returning serviceman of the Duke of Cornwall's Regiment. On two previous occasions in the past two decades, the famous Bodmin pub was named Pub of the Year by Camra Kernow while the armband was on display.
Now, following a national backlash and thousands of people coming out in support of Steve and his team at the Hole in the Wall, Camra UK has done a massive U-turn and returned the well-deserved award.
On its website, Camra said it had listened to the appeal by members of its Cornwall branch, adding: "The Hole in the Wall, Bodmin, has had its Cornwall Camra Branch Pub of the Year Award reinstated following a review by Camra’s national Awards Committee.
"The award was initially withdrawn at the end of March following a complaint about an offensive item on display. After an appeal by the Cornwall branch to Camra’s Awards Committee the committee agreed that the award for Cornwall Pub of the Year should be reinstated. Camra appreciates the licensee’s swift action in removing the item and apologises for any upset caused.
"We are committed to ensuring pubs and clubs are welcoming to all, with nationally agreed policies and guidance in place. This includes a policy to exclude pubs and breweries from awards and other promotions if they display discriminatory or offensive material."
A spokesman for Camra Kernow said: "It's very refreshing in the days of Partygate or the Post Office scandal for an organisation to get something wrong and very swiftly put it right." Vince Curtis, chairman of Camra Kernow added: "Cornwall Camra are pleased that our appeal was successful and that the right decision was reached with regards to the Hole in the Wall."
