‘Romantic, isn’t it?’ Cornish pub cuts energy costs with candlelight nights
The flickering light glints off the pint pots and the wine glasses as smiling faces appear out of the half-light. The chatter is jolly but a little quieter than might be expected of a busy pub, a pleasant hum rather than something more raucous.
Not a scene from a Thomas Hardy story or, given that this is north Cornwall, a Poldark romance, but autumn 2022 in the Masons Arms, Camelford, where soaring electricity bills have prompted the landlady and the landlord, Katy Chawner-Woods and Alan Woods, to turn the lights off and illuminate the place with hundreds of candles.
“Romantic, isn’t it?” says one of the faces that emerges from the shadows. Paul Parkinson, a gas engineer, has been coming to this pub for almost 20 years. “It’s like going back to the 18th century,” he says. “It feels relaxing. Everyone is struggling at the moment and if this is a way to keep this sort of place going then I’m all for it.”
Jayne and Chris Meadway, tourists from Gosport, Hampshire, were surprised when they arrived. “He thought it looked a bit weird,” says Jayne. “But when you get used to it, the candlelight brings out the character of the place, the shapes in the stonework. I think it’s lovely.”
Chawner-Woods says the idea came after she opened the August electricity bill – £2,574, compared with £1,172 for the same time last year. “I was having a moan and one of the locals said: ‘You should go back to how it was when the pub opened in 1753.’”
So they headed to Ikea, filled their car up with candles and launched candlelight Mondays. “We could have cut our menus or opening hours but thought it worth trying something different. And it seems to be working. People are telling us how it feels like a proper old cosy pub. It seems to change how people
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