A pub being investigated for an alleged hate crime over the display of racist dolls has closed for business after a boycott by three of its suppliers.
Benice Ryley, co-leaseholder of the White Hart Inn in Grays, Essex, said the pub could not recover from the “stigma” of a raid by Essex police when her collection of golly dolls was confiscated as part of its investigation.
The raid gained national attention after a source close to Suella Braverman suggested the home secretary had reprimanded the force over its action. But Essex police said it had had no contact with Braverman over the incident.
It later confirmed that as part of the investigation it was examining Facebook posts by Ryley’s husband, in which he compared the dolls to lynchings in Mississippi and expressed backing for far-right groups. Chris Ryley’s Facebook account has since been deleted. He is due to be interviewed by police later this month when he returns from Turkey, where the family have a holiday home.
His wife confirmed the pub was closing on Monday in an interview with the Thurrock Nub News. She revealed that two of its beer suppliers, Heineken and Carlsberg, had refused to allow their products to be served in the pub and Innserve, which maintained the pub’s pumps, was also refusing to serve it.
She said: “Carlsberg [and] Heineken told us to stop selling their product because they don’t want their name associated with the pub because of the stigma. And Innserve who serve our pumps and line cleans, they’re not going to come on site any more.”
Ryley blamed Essex police for acting on a complaint about the dolls when it had chosen not to take action after a similar complaint in 2018. She said: “I’m angry … because if the police left it alone like they left it alone in 2018, we wouldn’t be in this situation now. And we probably would have plodded on with the pub.”
When the Guardian visited the pub last month, Ryley expressed her determination to display replacement golly dolls behind the bar. She also said she and her husband had plans to retire to Turkey. A notice behind the pub blamed the police raid on “snowflake complaints”.
The following day Camra, the Campaign for Real Ale, said it was reviewing how it granted the White Hart several awards and a place in its guide which highlighted the pub’s “extensive collection of old-fashioned soft toys”.
The pub was vandalised the next weekend.
Ryley said she was disgusted by Camra’s decision to remove the pub from its guide. She said: “I am gutted [by] what Camra done to us. Many people from Camra have been in here … and they’ve never ever said anything about the collection.”
In her interview, Ryley again denied she was racist and claimed that younger generations did not understand golly dolls. She said: “If people think that golly dolls looks like them, they’re the ones who’s got a problem.”
She added: “I am upset that my gollies were taken. They were doing no harm. If people don’t like it, they didn’t have to come through my door.”
Heineken UK confirmed it had told the pub to stop serving its products on 20 April. In a statement it said: “After being made aware of the abhorrent display feature in the White Hart Inn, we advised the pub owners that we wanted nothing more to do with them. They go against everything we stand for.”
