Idyllic village pub where Heartbeat was filmed bans pub crawls after rowdy stag dos and hen parties caused chaos trying to complete so-called 'Gallon Walk'

An idyllic village pub in the Yorkshire countryside where hit TV series Heartbeat was filmed has banned a local bar crawl after becoming overwhelmed by stag dos and hen parties attempting to complete the 'Gallon Walk'.

The Birch Hall Inn in the valley village of Beck Hole, Whitby, which only has 17 residents, has closed its doors for good to the crowds of drunken revellers who arrive every Saturday. 

Busloads of men and women have shattered the peace of the rural area while taking part in the 'Gallon Walk' crawl after reportedly hijacking the event from charity fundraisers.

To complete the pub crawl challenge drinkers have to down a pint in each of the eight pubs between Egton and Goathland - the village best known as the filming site for fictional Aidensfield in the ITV drama Heartbeat.

But in recent years the small villages have been overwhelmed by groups boasting as many as 60 people descending along the five-mile crawl.

Once done for charity, locals say it is attracting growing numbers of drunken louts at stag does, hen parties, work dos and birthdays.  

Resident Andrew MacNeil, a retired plasterer, said: 'The gallon-walkers set off from Goathland and they go to Egton and they call in on every pub on the way. 

'They're very rowdy. If they haven't finished their drink, they'll take the glass and dump it on the way. 

'The pub here doesn't like to serve them. You can get busloads of men and women. They take over the whole village.

'This weekend there was about eight women in one group but it sounded like about a hundred.'

The Birch Hall Inn is believed to be the smallest in Yorkshire, being no bigger than a small living room, with about 15ft of space. Its own beer is brewed locally and also serves locally sourced pies.

It first opened in the 1860s and was a prime location on the Gallon Walk. Landlady Glenys Crampton, 72, has been running the tiny pub for 43 years since taking it over with her brother Colin Jackson in 1981. 

He retired in 2004 and she has since been running it with her husband Neil, 60, ever since.

The no-nonsense landlady who'd grown sick and tired of the 'anti-social' behaviour of the Gallon Walkers who she calls 'abusive, rowdy and inconsiderate.'

She wants the pub to provide a tranquil atmosphere for the locals and cater for those on a peaceful ramble through the valley.

So on Saturdays, the pub doors remain firmly shut in a 'tactical decision' to avoid having to deal with the 'gallon-walkers'.

Glenys said: 'In the past we had served them, but the numbers just got beyond us in this little place.

'We just don't open on a Saturday because it usually only happens on a Saturday. It was mainly the numbers but also, their behaviour was anti-social and in a little space like this it was very hard to deal with because you also have your other people who come here to enjoy it while it's quiet.

'It just wasn't working for us so we stopped doing it. The only way to stop it is to just not open as you can't selectively serve six people but not those 60 people.

'It was a mixture, works dos, people out for a birthday. They were abusive, rowdy, inconsiderate. Not all of them, by any means, but the majority.

'When there's 50 or 60, then another 40 arrive, and then another 20, in this little space, it would need three more staff and a doorman to be legal in terms of capacity limits. After 43 years of, touch wood, uneventful landlady-ship, I didn't want to go out on some sort of incident. 

'It can happen when you get groups, when one rubs up against another in a little space and we're not here for stress.'