YOUR review of the Blacksmith's Arms at Westow (Life & Times, May 7) was so one-sided I must add some missing detail to balance things.

Far from being a "...sleepy, stuffy tavern" with "...stained beer mats, pork scratchings and dusty dead flower arrangements" as your correspondent flippantly and erroneously states, it was a very pleasant country pub, bright and clean, with a very friendly atmosphere.

It provided good company, very well-kept real ale (an art in itself) and the best food in the area. Its Sunday lunches were by general consensus the very best in the whole of Ryedale.

Now, however, it is no longer the village pub; it is a restaurant. The locals have been told in no uncertain terms that they are all very welcome, but only if they wish to eat - drinkers, or rather those who only wish to drink, are not wanted.

In fact there is now no seating available in the bar area at all.

The pub's dominoes team has been told it can only play on Mondays. The local league fixtures are all on Wednesdays so their home matches are now held at the Stone Trough Inn in nearby Kirkham.

As to the food, I have nothing against either gourmet food or nouveau cuisine but some of us don't actually want such things - what we want is real food in proper portion sizes, to the same quality to that available before the takeover, which it now most certainly isn't.

Those of us who were regulars but, not by choice, are such no longer certainly don't feel that it has "transformed from a caterpillar into a butterfly".

We feel it has transformed from a much-loved old friend to an unwelcoming travesty.

Peter J Townsend,

Acklam, Malton.

Updated: 10:44 Monday, May 16, 2005