Wellingborough pub licence suspended after customer attacked with iron bat pending full review hearing

The full review hearing will decide the fate of the pub following the arrest of a 60-year-old man after an alleged serious assault on a man with a metal bat.

Emergency services were called to the pub on Monday, December 10, 2025 at about 7pm where they found a man with a serious head injury in the car park.

Details of the incident have been published in a report to the Licensing Sub-Committee of North Northants Council setting out details of the assault.

On December 18, 2025, the sub-committee suspended the premises licence pending the full review hearing due to be held on Monday, January 12, 2026.

Northants Police ordered the review saying, in their opinion, the premises are associated with ‘serious crime’ under section 53A of the Licensing Act 2003.

Outlining the events that unfolded after Northamptonshire Police attended The Royal Oak, officers said they had been called to a serious assault.

East Midlands Ambulance Service were already at the scene.

The report says that officers found the victim with a serious head injury, blood was on ground outside the pub doors and on the wall of the premises – where inside they found two men and a woman.

A review of the pub’s CCTV revealed the man leaving the pub and remonstrating with the pub’s occupants before being assaulted with an ‘iron bat’.

The man in an ‘agitated state’ was involved in a ‘heated’ argument after which he was struck “repeatedly and with force over his head causing heavy bleeding and concussion”.

Police recovered the bat on top of a fridge inside the pub.

Requesting the Licensing Sub-Committee of North Northamptonshire Council consider suspension of the premises licence, the report added: “Northamptonshire Police are of the belief that the licensing objective of the Prevention of Crime and Disorder is not being promoted and upheld.

“This would allow the investigation to progress and further evidence can be presented to the Licensing Sub-Committee but also Northamptonshire Police are committed to reducing serious violence and on an individual case-by-case basis would be concerned of a potential repeat of this type of incident.”

The report concluded that in Northamptonshire Police’s ‘opinion’ the customer was not lawfully ejected but “was a deliberate act of violence directed at a member of the public who had exited the premises and was assaulted with a weapon”. Adding that "Northamptonshire Police received no call from the premises reporting this incident but also no call requesting for assistance to remove the customer”.

It is not the first incident involving a licensing review at the Royal Oak Pub in Doddington Road.

On May 16, 2024 a review hearing took place instigated by Northamptonshire Police following similar ‘non-compliance’ from the premises following an assault at the pub.

A spokesman for Northants Police said: “A 60-year-old man was arrested following an alleged assault at the Royal Oak Public House in Doddington Road, Wellingborough, at about 7pm.

“The man from Wellingborough was arrested on suspicion of Section 18 – attempt wounding with intent and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place.

“He has been released on police bail pending further enquiries.”