VILLAGE pubs were plunged into darkness and unable to serve hot food after a far-reaching power cut. 

Problems were reported in at least five Oxfordshire villages yesterday, though it is not clear if the outage was caused by one fault or several unrelated faults.

Pubs near Oxford, Witney and Wantage all had to scale back their kitchen operations due to the loss of cooking facilities, and residents' homes were also left in the dark. 

The White Hart of Wytham was without power for much of yesterday afternoon, and could only serve sandwiches and cold platters from its kitchen.

A staff member at the award-winning pub near Oxford said electricity was lost at about 1pm - in the midst of lunch service - and was not restored until 5 or 6pm.

He said the power cut was across the whole village and he understood The Trout Inn in Wolvercote was also affected by an outage.

Across the county in Northmoor, near Witney, another pub was forced to pare back its menu.

The Red Lion posted a message to customers on its Facebook page at about 6pm, stating: "We’ve been suffering from a powercut since 12.30pm this lunchtime. Power not expected to return until 9pm.

"The boys in the kitchen are doing all they can but darkness is now upon us and, obviously, we have no means with which to cook food.

"Please spread the word!"

It seems The White Hart in Fyfield was also affected, with one customer saying he ate his 'lovely' dessert by candlelight.

There was also a power cut yesterday in several villages near Wantage, and SSEN offered residents complementary use of a burger van in apology.

The Fox Inn in Denchworth, one of the affected villages, told customers it could not open for lunch.

With wet and windy conditions forecast throughout the weekend, SSEN has encouraged people to report any weather-related incidents such as damaged power lines. 

To check for power cuts or report an issue, see here.