‘Romantic, isn’t it?’ Cornish pub cuts energy costs with candlelight nights

The Masons Arms in Camelford is turning out the lights on Mondays after a sharp rise in its electricity bill

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.