The Famous Virgins & Castle on the old High Street in Kenilworth has launched an online Christmas Jumper event and a Sunday roast takeaway as they find themselves forced to remain closed under tier three restrictions.

The 16th century pub, that is part of the Everards Brewery and owned by hospitality group Caviar & Chips, had to close its doors, along with every other pub in the country, on Thursday, November 5, and remains closed along with all Warwickshire pubs, courtesy of the county's tier three restrictions.

The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest sectors hit by the impact of Coronavirus this year. The owners of the Virgins & Castle only took over in March and are doing all they can to keep business going, even though we're seeing many pubs and restaurants closing and suffering redundancies into the thousands.

So to keep Kenilworth in the festive spirit, the pub is hosting a Christmas Jumper event on Zoom on Friday, December 11 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm, hosted by their general manager, Andy Lock.

Andy explained "We were so disappointed to hear that we couldn't re-open our doors last week. After all the work we've done to get the pub ready for our first Christmas it felt like a huge let down.

"But we like to keep positive and so on Friday we're going to show-off the decorated pub online and host a Zoom party asking everyone to wear their Christmas Jumper raising awareness for Save the Children, which is a great charity and cause."

Residents will be able to order and collect drinks and pub snacks from the Virgins and Castle on Thursday and Friday this week in advance of the Zoom event, and then join in together to create some festive cheer from the comfort of their homes.

"We're also launching a Sunday takeaway so people can still enjoy our famous Sunday roast," says Andy, "It has to be one of our most popular dishes and I've had so many calls from our regulars asking if we could do a Sunday roast takeaway, so we've decided to start that from Sunday 13 December.

"People can simply call the pub, order their roast and drinks and then we'll have it ready for collection with heating instructions so they can enjoy it at home".

You can join the Christmas Jumper event on Zoom with the Virgins & Castle by following the link on their Facebook page.

To order your takeaway Sunday roast, simply call the pub on 01926 853 737 or visit their website.