By Lauren Beavis, SWNS

A FEMALE farmer from Davidstow has hit back after she was slammed for saying “thanks maid” to a landlady — who thought she was being called a servant.

Helen Hambly, 34, rang the pub trying to book a table for a romantic meal for Valentine’s Day.

She spoke to the landlady and Helen then said “thanks maid” — which she says is a term of endearment.

But Helen says she didn’t put the phone down properly and she heard the innkeeper swearing and calling locals ‘stupid’.

The landlady Lisa Jenkins has since apologised.

The landlady of the 13th century boozer, said she is from ‘up country’ and felt like she was being called ‘a female domestic servant’.

Helen called The Bearslake Inn near Sourton to book a meal for her and boyfriend Rob Colwill.

She said they heard it was a lovely “up-market spot” and fancied something different.

Helen said: “I was nothing but polite. At the end I said, “thanks maid — cheers — bye!” but we didn’t hang up and we could hear her talking to someone about us.”

Describing the incident on Facebook, Helen said her TripAdvisor review was rejected because she had not actually made the ‘trip’ to the pub.

She wrote: “This was yesterday evening, around 8pm — according to TripAdvisor I didn’t make the ‘trip’ so my review will not be put on the page. 

“Fair enough but I hope this reaches Bearslake Restaurant and Inn at Sourton.

“Bloody rude, will never visit.

“Me and my partner literally just called [the pub] — we was inquiring about possibly booking a table for Valentine’s day.

“We got through to what seemed to be a pleasant woman. She said to look on the website for their sample menu, but I was unsure how to do this and she told me to look on the dine section. Fantastic and I thanked her — ‘Thanks maid — cheers — bye!’.

“I’m Cornish and didn’t realise that the Cornish lingo would offend someone.

“We said goodbye but did not hang up! She then talked to a colleague and took the Mick. 

“This was extremely degrading about our local dialect. Saying I quote “f***ing maid” and “stupid locals” both was laughing before they hung up.

“Unfortunately we were looking forward to a meal out, but we will not be visiting, and if you’re local it doesn’t sound like you’re welcome anyway!

“I don’t understand what she has gained by being so rude, other than losing the business money.’’

Lisa later posted an apology on Helen’s Facebook.

She wrote: “Dear Ms Hambly, I have seen your Facebook comments and please first of all let me apologise if you feel I have caused any offence as that was never my intention.

“When you rang and after saying goodbye, as you say, we hadn’t fully hung up the call I commented to my other half who was sitting next to me and had overhead the conversation about why you’d called me “maid!”, after which point we had hung up the call.

“I’m not from these parts having moved down several years ago from up country and “maid” is not a term I’d heard before now. 

“From the part of the country where I’m from a “maid” is “a female domestic servant” and that’s why perhaps you felt I’d taken offence as to be called a “maid” would have been offensive to me in that context. 

“And what you didn’t hear was that my partner had explained to me that “maid” is a colloquial term used by locals and is a term of endearment towards another person. 

“We have many locals who do enjoy dining with us here at Bearslake (albeit none with such a broad and distinctive local dialect as yours) and they are all very welcome as you and your partner would also be if you chose to come and dine with us. 

“Once again, please accept my sincerest apologies if this has been misinterpreted and caused offence as that was never the intent.”

Helen is unhappy with Ms Jenkin’s “poor” apology.

She said: “It is not a valid explanation. Just hold your hands up and admit you’ve done wrong.

“This woman lives on the edge of Dartmoor — you telling me she hasn’t heard nobody call someone maid.

“I’m really not a rude or arrogant person and really believe that the meaning of ‘maid’ is more polite — maid doesn’t cause no harm to anybody.”

The couple will now be going down to Tintagel or stick with their local, The Wilsley Down, in Hallworthy, for their Valentine’s meal.