Please note that I am giving one star because it is not an option to give none.

My family and I decided we wanted to go for a nice Boxing Day walk along the river and stop into this pub on the way for a nice drink and a snack. It began by the already terrible service at the bar whereby the staff seemed irritated by us for asking what options they had for crisps and then proceeded to sell them to us 3 months out of date. They did refund us for these, however we felt like an annoyance, which is not exactly the pleasant pub trip we had in our minds.

However, nothing prepared us for what was to unfold after this. On the table next to us, a man and his son (I would say about 14 or 15), who clearly had autism, were having a drink. A staff member came over to clear up the glasses from the table and does something that triggers him. It seemed like she knocked over a glass towards him and he responded by throwing it at her. Up until this point, I am sympathic towards her as I do understand that it is not pleasant to have a glass thrown at you whilst you're at work. Despite the fact that this kid is clearly autistic and looks absolutely terrified of her, she starts shouting at him and getting really close to his face.

At this point, the boy is curled up on himself in a very defensive manner and reaches out a couple of times to grab anything that is near him and throw it at her, so it results in him throwing a couple of glasses at her again. She continues to be very aggressive towards him and the scene is now very distressing to watch as the child is very upset and his father looks devastated and is trying to physically restrain his child and remove him from the situation, but the woman is continuing to get aggressive at both the boy and his father, making everything worse.

Once the father removed the boy from the immediate area, I went over to try and help tidy up the glasses and stuff from the floor and tell the woman to calm down as the boy clearly is has special needs, to which she responds by pushing me. I am not sure what gives this woman the right to start pushing customers, but she at this point is squaring up to me because I am telling her to stop shouting at and being physically aggressive to children with autism.

She proceeds to then return inside the pub and bring out another man. This man comes out asking where the boy is and is also being very aggressive. I tell him that he should leave him alone as he is clearly autistic but both the man and the woman are having none of it and continue to threaten the boy.

I was shocked and disgusted in the at the appalling display of aggression and ignorance towards someone with special needs and then to physically assault a customer because they dared to say something about it. I have never witnessed such awful behaviour before and it brought me to tears afterwards. I am utterly disgusted and would never, ever bring anyone to this place ever again or ever recommend it.

After this, most people in the beer garden proceeded to leave and many came over to agree with me and my family over what had happened, so I know that it was not just us that felt this way. The service had already been atrocious, and this utterly repulsed me.

When you see these stories on social media, you think that there couldn't possibly be people with this mindset in the world, but what happened today proved that there are these sorts of people out there, and they apparently work in The Flower Pot. Avoid at all costs.