No swearing, no singing, no fancy dress: UK’s ‘strictest pub’ calls time

Shaun Collinge, who has run the Maltings with his wife, Maxine, for 31 years. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

It is relaxed and convivial and doesn’t feel like the UK’s strictest pub.

But the Maltings pub in York must be up there, given its rules include: no swearing, no singing, no television, no music, no stag parties, no hen dos and, for the avoidance of any doubt about the ambience it wants, no fancy dress.