‘Brides and grooms are not welcome’ said signs put up on the way to a rural Norfolk wedding venue last year.
‘No more weddings - we’ve had enough’, another sign demanded.
The hostile messages on display along a road to Oxnead Hall, near Aylsham, followed a series of complaints from neighbours of the hall in a row over excessive noise and disruption coming from wedding parties at the exclusive venue.
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The neighbours – including the owners of the 500-acre Hill Farm which surrounds Oxnead Hall – positioned the signs on a track which runs directly past their homes.
Complaints from the neighbours of loud music long into the night, a constant flow of vehicles driving past their homes, and rowdy guests entering land around their properties resulted in the long-running dispute reaching breaking point.
The signs were removed after a couple of weeks and now, the owners of the 16th Century hall, David and Beverly Aspinall, have said they are hosting up to five weddings every week as they enter their peak summer season.
Despite this, they say they have put measures in place to improve the situation for their neighbours.
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Mrs Aspinall said: “It has all quietened down since then.
“We’re a seasonal business and we were entering our quiet period back then.
“We didn’t welcome it because our main concern was our couples. Some had booked two or three years in advance because of the pandemic, and we didn’t want them turning up on the day to unwelcoming signs.
“We’ve now made a few changes to make things better for them [the neighbours].”
The measures to minimise disruption in the evenings include a sound limit on the venue’s music systems and parking vehicles at the front of the hall to avoid driving past the neighbours’ properties.
They have also employed a security guard to stop guests from entering people's land, and they are taking deliveries and tipping glass bottles into bins no later than 5pm.
The neighbours were approached but declined to comment.
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